I let myself lay in Mom's arms for an eternity. "We came into the room," I told Mom, knowing for the first time in an extremely long time that everything truly was going to be all right, "and I couldn't even see your face. You were just this…this…blob. I thought you were going to die, and then when the doctor gave you a date of death…I just lost it."
Mom laughed, which surprised me. "Guess I disappointed him. Definitely screwed up their records."
"Guess so."
Dad came up from behind me and pulled up a chair. There we were, a family of three once again. Only, I knew that Dad would be leaving soon, and then Mom and I would be left alone again. I could never forgive him for leaving like he did. Despite the fact that deep now I really did love him like that, forgiveness for that action wouldn't come. Never.
"Max?" Dad finally asked.
She turned to look at him, but didn't let her hands stray from my knot of hair, nor did I move away from her. "Yes, Zack?"
"Are you going to be fine now?"
"I've alive-aren't I?"
"Yes."
"Zack, look, it's nice that you started caring about me, but everything will be ok."
"I'm not saying that I didn't care about you before. I always have."
"Some way to show it," she responded.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
I resisted an urge to smile. We were all just bawling a minute ago about Mom's death and now she and Dad were fighting again. What a screwy family we made out to be.
"It's supposed to mean that you leave and come just as you please."
"You know that's the way I've always been."
"You have a family now."
"A little bit late to start that talk-isn't it, Max? We've been through this before."
"Of course," she replied and rolled her eyes with a heavy sigh.
"What? You want me to just stick around now that there's Manticore people after us?"
"Wait," Mom said, pulling away from me and pointing her finger directly at Dad in disbelief. "What did you just say?"
"I said that I have to start searching the country for Manticore people now that we've been tipped."
"Tipped? How?"
"Remember anybody named Elizabeth Renfro?" Dad asked her with an arched eyebrow.
"Shit…"
"Exactly. She was after you. Wanted to make sure that you would die so that your body could go back to Manticore. Needless to say, she didn't get the body."
"What happened to her?"
Dad didn't answer, instead he glanced at the floor and didn't look up until he knew that she knew. I saw the recognition flash across Mom's face as to what he had done. "Oh God…" she whispered as her hand covered her mouth in horror.
"She was on the phone with other people, arranging a vehicle to take you back. That means there's others out there, looking for us."
"Not exactly the news that I needed to hear right now. But, I suppose, it could be worse."
"How?" I asked her.
"Just trust me, Alanza, it could be worse."
"We need to leave Seattle as soon as possible. Get out of the country perhaps. I'm sure that bitch sent your medical records over to the base-if that's even still around," Dad told us, although he was facing Mom.
"No," Mom responded. "We can't leave."
"Max, it's not safe here anymore. They'll come for all of us. And, now that all of the remaining X-series-or what we know is remaining-are in Seattle, they find one of us, they find all of us. Chain reaction. It's too dangerous."
"But, I don't want to leave," I protested.
"'Lanza-" he began.
"No. All my life I've heard nothing except how scary this Lydecker dude is. Maybe he's dead, maybe he's not. But, what I do know is that, apparently, Manticore isn't as dead as we thought it was."
"You're not listening," Dad said to me.
"No, you're not the one listening. You have both trained me to be this superior warrior that's supposed to fight off anything at anytime. But, yet, we run whenever we here that there's trouble.
"I was born in Seattle, I left Seattle for California, and now I'm back in Seattle. And, personally, I intend to stay in Seattle. Sure, you may both be out of training, but I'm not. I know all the moves because you have both taught them to me. If you're afraid, then leave, Dad. You've done it for most of my life; your departure won't change anything now. But, I'm not leaving. I'll stay and fight these people, even if it means I die doing so. That's what you both taught me, and I'm not going to turn away now."
Dad looked at me, then glanced over to Mom. He said nothing for a moment, although we all knew that we were waiting for him to do the speaking. "Fine," he snorted. "You can stay here. But I'm not. And, my leaving, unlike you said, will change something this time. I guarantee it."
