Outside
By Be Boring
Chapter 8: Timing
Kay sat back on the horse she was riding a few days later. The filly was newly broken to ride and didn't want to listen. Buddy had figured there was no one better than her to handle an unmanageable horse. Kay normally would have agreed with him, but this filly didn't want to listen whatsoever. She really had a mind of her own. They had been riding around for about a half hour and she still hadn't made any progress. The only thing she had managed to do was completely frustrate both herself and the horse. She hadn't exactly been at the top of her game lately though. Having Zack around distracted her. She hated it when he popped up out of nowhere, which he was very good at. She'd be thinking she was alone and would nearly have a heart attack when she realized he was standing behind her. He also wouldn't give up on his dream about killing himself for Max. Kay had tried to assure him that it was just in his head, but he wouldn't believe her. He wanted to find out for sure. That was just like him, not believing what anyone said until he had proof of it himself. He was still so much like his childhood self in many ways, but different in others. He liked being the leader, but now he took suggestions for how things should be done. That surprised her. It had used to be his way or the highway, she wondered what had changed that. She had the sneaking feeling it was because of Max.
She turned her head to look at Zack chopping firewood. He could cut straight through even the toughest piece of wood on his first try. He hadn't seemed to notice his unnatural strength, but everyone else on the farm admired it. There were a few farm hands that didn't know what Zack and Kay were, which was why she let him handle that kind of physical work. If people admired him for it, they'd go into shock if they saw her doing it. She watched him until the filly reared up. She pulled her back down, but then she bolted. She tried to divert the filly's aim from the fence, but she couldn't. They went up and over the fence and off into the woods. Kay tried desperately to slow the horse down, she knew the terrain in the woods was bad, so the filly could stumble and break something. Kay wasn't too worried about herself, she knew she could handle anything that happened to her.
She heard some shouts from the farm. They had noticed her little problem here finally.
The filly turned onto what appeared to be an old bike path. Kay tried not to feel too relieved. Despite the fact that this ground was smoother, there was still a chance for an accident. She glanced up the trail ahead. There seemed to be a dip in it. She wasn't exactly sure what it was, but she didn't get the chance to wonder as the filly pitched in head first. It was only a couple of feet deep, but the filly hadn't seen it. The filly crashed down and Kay went flying. She was unable to correct herself in the air. She knew what was going to happen a split second before it happened. She landed on her left arm and both felt and heard the loud snap. The whole world seemed to spin and got a lot more colorful. The last sight she had was of the filly's limp body in the tiny ditch, then everything went black.
Who the hell is tapping my face? Kay opened her eyes and looked up. Zack was crouched over her, trying to get her to wake up. He looked relieved when she recognized him. She glanced around quickly.
"Where's the horse?"
Zack just shook his head sadly. Kay bit her lip. The filly must have landed on her neck. After what seemed like forever, Zack spoke.
"We have to get you back to the house. You broke your arm."
"No shit Sherlock!" came her aggravated reply. She softened up slightly at the hurt expression on his face.
"Sorry, that's just my way of dealing with pain. I'll take in out on people around me. Try not to pay too much attention to it."
He studied the rest of her body. "Did you hurt anything else? Can you walk?"
Kay glanced down. Everything looked normal. "I guess we'll just have to find out." She sat up, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in her arm. Zack put his hand under her good arm to help support her if she needed it. She pulled herself to her feet with his help, but the second she stepped forward she let out a yelp. Her left ankle stung horribly. Zack eased her back down and pulled up her pant leg. She saw that the ankle was swollen roughly to the size of a baseball.
"Maybe I won't be walking anywhere soon."
Without warning, Zack scooped her up in his arms and started walking back towards the farm.
"What are you doing? Let me down!" Kay tried kicking out, but this was not the best position to aim well.
"Since you can't walk back, I'm carrying you back. You've got to get that arm looked at, and maybe the ankle too."
"It's just a sprain in my ankle," she growled. She was definitely not in the best mood.
"Still, you should get it looked at. We'll probably make a run to the hospital."
"No hospital!"
Zack looked down at her, confused. "You've got to get treated."
She shook her head.
"I heal fast. I just need the bone set for me."
Zack didn't seem to believe what he was hearing. Still, he didn't push the issue. Kay tried to relax, but she wasn't used to being carried around like a baby, especially by Zack. This made him just a little too close for comfort.
Buddy looked up as they approached and smiled at the scene. Kay rolled her eyes. He wouldn't let go of this one for a while.
"Buddy, do you know anyone who could get this set for me?"
Buddy knew she couldn't go to a hospital. He shook his head. "I don't know of anyone with medical experience." He turned to Zack. "Adam, you were good with medicine before the accident. Maybe you could set her arm for her."
Zack didn't seem to know what to say. "I could look I guess."
He set her down on the couch in the main house and looked at her arm. It looked as though a light bulb had gone on in his head. Kay knew that had been a good idea of Buddy's. The X5s all learned how to do this kind of stuff at Manticore. It was for in case one of them got injured on a mission, their partner, if they had one, could fix them up. After Zack was finished, he wrapped up her ankle as well. Mary walked over with their supper.
"Kay, you probably shouldn't be alone right now. Someone should be keeping an eye on you to make sure you don't hurt yourself more. Maybe Adam should stay with you for a couple of days. Since he stayed there before his place was fixed, he knows his way around."
Kay wished she could have picked up the phone sitting next to her and hurled it at Mary. She just didn't understand why she and Buddy kept making her do things with Zack. She sat back against the couch, defeated.
"Fine, but only for a week." She knew that was how long it would take for her to heal. After all, X5s heal quickly. That seemed to please Mary for the time being.
After getting back home, Kay just wanted to go to bed. Even though it was still early, it would be a way of getting away from Zack. Since he had insisted that she not walk on her bad ankle, he carried her to the bedroom. She lay there and kept herself busy with visions of punishing Buddy and Mary for this. She would never do that, but she was mad enough right now that the visions kept her happy.
The next morning, she wondered why it was so warm in her room. She usually had to keep her house warm through the fireplace, but that still normally left her room cold. The warmth just seemed to get worse through the morning.
She heard Zack go out for his chores. Since he was gone, she stood up and walked into her kitchen to get something to eat. Her ankle was almost completely recovered already. She didn't usually eat breakfast, but this morning she was starving. She glanced out the window and saw Zack cutting up firewood without his shirt on. She watched him and felt the room get a whole lot warmer. She had never noticed how good looking he was before, but she sure could tell now. He looked great.
She shook her head and turned back to her food. What was she thinking? Maybe she was getting sick. That would explain why she was so warm and wasn't thinking straight. She made her way back to her room. Maybe she could sleep it off.
Her dreams as she slept all seemed to be of Zack. He would stop cutting wood and come up by her. When he started kissing her, she dragged him towards the bedroom. Kay snapped awake. That was disgusting, but right now it seemed fine. She glanced down and noticed she was sweating. It was really, really hot in here. Her head snapped up as she heard someone come into the house. Through the open door she could see Zack getting something to drink. He walked to her room and looked down at her.
"How are you feeling?"
She smiled at him and looked at his sweaty body. "I just got a whole lot better."
Her gaze made him uncomfortable. "Ok, then I'll get back to work."
She pouted slightly. "Leaving so soon? Why don't you stay?"
"I've really got to get back to work."
He hurried out of the room. Kay pouted for a bit more, then groaned. She knew what was wrong now. She was in heat! No wonder she had had that strange dream about him. Nothing but her heat cycle could make her have a dream like that with him in it. She spent the rest of the day trying to focus on anything but the window.
She could hit herself for not realizing what was wrong sooner. It wasn't like this was anything new. The only difference this time was that she was in the outside world. If she had been at Manticore, they would have warned the guards not to approach her cell and she wouldn't have been let out. Her food would have been brought by a female X5 and she would have been monitored closely until they were sure she was back to normal. Out here she would have to handle herself. She tried to reassure herself. It could have been worse. She could have been captured by White right now. Right now, since she wasn't too far in, she would still be able to handle herself just fine around him, knowing that he was the enemy, but at the peak of her heat cycle, even he would look good.
A surge of panic hit her. What would she do at the peak of her cycle? She would have zero control over herself around men. She decided she needed to go to Mary. She picked up the phone to call the main house. She didn't trust herself to go across the yard with Zack right there. He might even try to carry her where she wanted to go, and then she wouldn't be wanting to go to see Mary.
Mary came over right away. Kay explained what was going on. Mary didn't seem to know what to say. It wasn't everyday you find out that someone you know goes into heat like an animal. She sat down and pondered the problem for a moment.
"We'll have to ask Adam to go back to his place. I don't know how we'll convince him to leave though. He'll want to know why, and we can't exactly tell him the truth. That may remind him of Manticore."
Kay knew Mary was right. Zack couldn't know the truth. She didn't want him remembering anything about Manticore and how he felt about her then. She didn't want to take the chance of him reverting back to that. Especially since she was injured right now. Suddenly the door opened and Buddy walked in. Thankfully, Zack wasn't with him and Kay wasn't deep enough into her cycle to be attracted to Buddy.
"I just got a call from Logan. He needs someone to tell him of a water route to get here. He wouldn't tell me why, just that it was important. Kay, you came up here not too long ago, so do you remember a path of water getting all the way here?"
Kay shook her head.
"I passed two rivers, but there was a few miles in between where one stopped and the other one started. Maybe you should let me talk to him."
Buddy pulled out his cell phone and dialed Logan's number. He handed the phone to her.
"Logan? It's Kay. Why do you need an all water path to get here?"
"Kay? What are you doing there?"
"I've been here for a while. This is where I came when I left you that note."
"Oh, Max was in a panic when she found out you'd left. She felt that she wouldn't be able to help you if you got into trouble."
"That's what I was going for. Why do you need the water route?"
"Well, Manticore created what I guess I'll just have to call merpeople for the moment. They would be able to travel on land for a little while, but they just had babies, if that's what you could call the little things that came out of the eggs. Those little guys won't last long outside water."
"I know of a good way, but they will have to be out of the water for a few miles."
"Drive down here and take them up. You can drive alongside the water and when they need to get out, you should have a large jar for the little ones ready. They should make it then."
"Okay, I'll be down as soon as possible." Kay hung up the phone. "I guess I'm going back to Seattle for a little while. I'll want to take my own car so I don't get anyone suspicious about you guys."
She packed up some food for herself. She couldn't stay long. Logan wouldn't be too safe around her. Even when she was sane she had thought he was good looking. Now she'd be all over him. She had to get going before she hit her peak.
She pulled out of the driveway before Zack could reach her and ask questions. She already had a story set up with Buddy and Mary. The drive was exactly what she needed. She left the windows down even though it was freezing outside because it cooled her off. The scenery in the country was beautiful. It was pretty much the only place that didn't look messed up by the Pulse. In reality, it wasn't much better off than the city, but at least it didn't look like it.
After reaching Logan's apartment, she was careful not to make eye contact with any men on her way in. The elevator ride seemed to be way too short. She didn't really want to confront Logan right now, but time wasn't exactly slowing down for her.
She walked to his door and was about to knock when Max opened it. Before Kay could stop her, she was being hugged.
"Don't ever run off without telling me where you're going again!"
Kay chuckled. "Alright Mom."
She saw Logan just behind Max. She quickly diverted her eyes from him. Max couldn't seem to relax.
"Where have you been? What happened to your arm? Are you in trouble? How did you hear about us needing a water path?"
Logan glanced at her. "Yeah, how did you know? The only person I called was Buddy. In case you wanted to know, Zack is living with him."
Kay nodded.
"I know. I've been living there too. It was a nasty shock for me when he showed up. To answer all your questions Max, I've been living in Canada where Zack is, my arm got broke in an accident on Buddy's farm, I am not in trouble other than my feline DNA kicking in right now in the worst way, and Buddy told me about you guys needing a water path because I had driven up there recently. Now I have some questions too. What the hell happened to Zack and why are we supposed to keep him from remembering his past?"
Max sighed and looked at her hands. For a while Kay had the feeling her questions were going to go unanswered, but Max finally started talking.
"Apparently after they harvested his organs, Renfro had some experiments done on him, which included some computer type stuff. There's a chip in his head that manages his memories and a lot of his organs have been replaced with fake ones. If it hadn't been for his blood kicking in, the left side of his face would still be metal and his left eye would be a red light. Manticore brainwashed him into thinking that Logan was responsible for sabotaging our mission to blow up the DNA lab. He tried to kill Logan. We wiped his memory clean and gave him a new life so that he could be happy and wouldn't remember about Logan so he wouldn't try to kill him again. That's what would definitely happen if Zack remembered everything."
Kay was dumbstruck. That was quite the story. No wonder they had to keep him from remembering. Max looked sad. It had to have been hard for her to give up her brother. Max turned to her.
"How is he doing?"
"He seems happy. You wouldn't believe how different he is now than he used to be. He's just a normal person now. As far as I know, he hasn't really remembered anything, except he did have a dream about shooting himself to save you. I just told him it was all in his head. I don't think he really believes me, but I think that's pretty much it. If he's remembered anything else, then he hasn't shown it."
Max nodded. At least her brother was doing well. Logan sat down.
"We should get started on getting those transgenics to Canada. Do you know what way you're taking?"
Kay nodded, keeping her eyes on her feet.
"Right now they're in a pond just outside of town." He gave her directions to get to it. From what Kay could tell, she'd have to get the babies into the jar to take them to the first river, then they could go to the next one. It wouldn't be too hard. She said goodbye to them, but not before being forced to give Max her number so they wouldn't be separated.
She drove out to the pond and studied the water transgenics. Manticore sure had created weird creatures. She walked out to them and showed them her barcode. The female nodded and pointed to her babies. Kay kneeled down and scooped them into the large jar she had. She had brought a couple since she didn't know how many babies there were. She split them up into two jars and carried them to her car. The other two followed along, holding wet blankets over the gills that were on their ribs. They sat in the back, each holding a jar of babies.
Kay drove to the first river. She could see it was hard to travel out of the water for them. The female seemed to be getting weaker already. She was the first one to dive into the water. She looked better almost immediately. Kay dumped the babies back into the water next to their mother. The father hadn't climbed in yet. Kay turned to him, making sure not to take in how good-looking he was. Besides, she wasn't even sure if he had the right parts to satisfy her cycle.
"I'll pull over to the side of the road when it's time for you to get back in."
He nodded and jumped into the water. Kay had to drive quickly to keep up with them. She was amazed at how fast they could swim. She kept her eye out for anything strange. She didn't want to get caught.
When they reached where the first river turned away from the road, Kay pulled over. The merpeople stopped as well. Once again, Kay scooped up the babies and took them to the car. After everyone was safely inside, Kay took off again. This was making her nervous that there hadn't been anyone to stop them. There was always the chance that she'd just gotten lucky, but she happened to be a paranoid person. This was just too easy. Once she got the transgenics to the next river they wouldn't need her help anymore, so she just focused on getting them there.
They were nearing it when she saw a vehicle pull out behind them. She took a good look in the rearview mirror. Big surprise. It was White and Otto. There were some soldiers in the back of the truck they were driving. Kay groaned inwardly. She didn't have a gun or anything, or she'd shoot at them. She made it seem as though she was just going straight, but she turned to the transgenics in the back.
"Hold on," she instructed and turned the car sharply onto a gravel road. She pushed her foot down on the accelerator. This car had plenty of get up and go in it, but she wasn't sure if she could outdo the truck behind her. All she had to do was get the merpeople to the river. They could get to the farm from there.
She looked back. The truck was getting closer and the female transgenic looked pretty bad. Even the male was starting to look weak. Kay looked to her left. There was no road, but she could see the river. She turned off the road and headed straight for it. She was driving across an empty field. Her foot was all the way down on the gas.
She looked around. There had to be something she could do to stall White so he didn't see her putting the other two into the water. She opened the glove compartment and grinned. She had a bottle of ink sitting in there. She had taken it from Joshua's house because it was so pretty. She had wondered why Sandeman had kept an old time ink bottle that was full. It wasn't like he needed to write with a quill. No matter what he used it for, she silently thanked him. It would definitely come in handy.
She peered back at the truck. As she had figured he would do, White had followed her off the road. She grabbed the bottle and waited for the right moment. He would be able to get the ink off, so she needed to time it so that he wouldn't have it off before she had let the transgenics loose.
"When you get in the water, just swim north and follow the river. Buddy will be waiting for you at a certain point, so you'll have to take the jars with you while you're swimming." She pulled out a picture of Buddy. "This is what he looks like. He'll get you to safety."
The male studied the picture, then handed it back to her and flashed her a thumbs up. Kay got ready to throw the ink. She had to time it perfectly. Before she had to slow down to stop at the river, she leaned out the window and threw the bottle back. Not only did it spray all over the windshield, it flew in the open side windows. The truck went into a spin as White's eyes were filled with ink.
Kay squealed to a stop by the river and helped the transgenics to the water. She glanced back at the truck and smiled as she saw the men wouldn't have been able to see her had the ink not been in their eyes anyway. After she was sure the merpeople were out of sight, Kay went to hop back in the car but saw a gun pointing out of the truck. She didn't get a chance to move as she was tasered. She went down hard and bit back a cry of pain because of her arm. She was grabbed by hands roughly and shoved into the back of the truck. She threw her good arm into the face of one of the soldiers. She knew she wasn't in any shape to escape, but she could make it tough for them. The soldier screamed as her elbow connected with his nose. The other soldier grabbed his gun and cracked it over the side of her head. Kay made sure to kick him in the groin before sliding into the blackness.
She woke up in chains. The room she was in was freezing. She looked around to see where she was. She was back in one of the Seattle warehouses, she was sure of that. For some reason she was sure they weren't going to leave her loose with Otto this time. She had been surprised to see him still working for White. Most people would have fired him for being stupidly seduced by the enemy. Maybe they just didn't want anyone else knowing about the transgenics running loose over the country.
She managed to pull herself up into a sitting position. She was chained by her legs and arms, but she wasn't fastened to anything. Couldn't they have waited another couple of days before doing this? She silently waited for someone to come in. She listened hard. She wanted some idea of what they were gong to do to her before they killed her. She could hear the voices outside.
"Sir, we found something a little strange with her DNA."
"You mean other than the obvious?" White snapped.
"Well, the X5s were made with feline DNA. Not like a lion or tiger or anything like that, just your average household cat. It seems that they have hormonal patterns similar to cats as well because of this."
"What is that supposed to mean for the scientifically challenged?"
"In simpler terms sir, it means she has heat cycles like a cat. She's in heat right now as a matter of fact."
Oh great. Exactly what I wanted him to know.
"From what we can tell, it's almost over, which means she's hitting her peak."
Could someone get that idiot to shut up now? I don't need every guy in the place looking at me as their Friday night fun!
She could hear White pacing.
"Why wouldn't Manticore have found a way around this? Surely it would interfere with their missions?"
"They probably couldn't find a way around it. Most likely the females in heat would be placed in solitary confinement until it was over, and it would have had to have been scheduled around."
"How exactly will a transgenic in heat act?"
"To be frank, very horny. There's really no other word for it. I'm sure every female is different though. X5-358 may or may not have a serious heat cycle. Her peak may or may not include losing all control around a man. We really can't tell."
I just love how this guy makes me sound like the ultimate slut. I'll be fine as long as no one decides to test just how horny I am.
The door opened and White walked in. She kept her eyes on the wall.
"How nice to see you again, Ames. I was almost starting to miss you. The keyword there is almost." As long as she focused on the cracks in the ceiling, she could continue being her normal self.
"Why don't you look at me when you talk, 358? Is it that difficult?"
So he was going to push this. Fine, two could play that game.
"You haven't taken a look in the mirror lately, have you? If you had, you would see the problem I have. My eyes are supersensitive, so what your wife suffers through with having to look at your mug every day is double for me. With all the money you make killing my kind you'd think you'd at least be able to afford some plastic surgery to fix the wrinkles in your forehead, not to mention those squinty eyes. I can't help but wonder sometimes how you see."
He clenched his teeth. She was starting to piss him off. He didn't like being insulted by something he didn't even consider to be human. He walked over to her and looked straight down at her so she couldn't avoid seeing him.
"I'm not so sure that's what your problem is. I think you have some idea of what I'm talking about."
Kay shrugged, trying not to focus directly on him. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I told you my problem with you, you should just take me at my word."
"Your word means nothing to me."
"The feeling's mutual."
White shook his head and walked back out. Kay took a deep breath of relief. She had managed to keep herself under control. She was getting dangerously close to her peak. If she didn't get out soon, she would be in serious trouble. She heard White's voice outside the door.
"Otto, why don't you go in and untie her? I promise you'll be just fine."
That bastard!
Otto apparently didn't know about her condition, because he was shaking like a leaf as he entered the room. White shut the door behind him and gave him a rather sarcastic smile. Otto now looked purely terrified. Kay shut her eyes hard. It was getting worse. Peak would be hitting any second now, she could tell. Otto tried opening the door to get back out. White's voice carried in from the other side.
"Just unlock her chains Otto and I swear you'll be fine. You can trust me."
Like hell!
Otto trembled as he approached her with the keys. Kay kept her eyes shut. He fumbled with the keys as he freed her arms. Kay balled them into fists and dug her nails into her palm. She could feel him moving around by her legs. Her body started shaking. Just as he undid the chains binding her legs, Kay leapt onto him, kissing his neck. Otto went over backwards and landed with her on top of him.
Kay didn't get a chance to go farther as she heard loud thuds in the room outside her door and the door burst open. Max grabbed her and pulled her off Otto, punching her when she tried to fight back. Kay easily would have been able to take her out had she not been in her current state. Max literally dragged her out of the building. Kay noticed with some satisfaction that White had been knocked out. Unfortunately, he looked as though he was still breathing. She was forced onto Max's motorcycle and had to hold on for dear life as Max sped towards a part of town away from Logan's. Kay felt a little disappointed, but she knew it was for the best that she not be by him at this time.
Max took her into an apartment that Kay guessed she lived in. She spotted Original Cindy on the couch. OC seemed to understand what was going on and left immediately. Kay crossed her arms as Max set her down on the couch.
"The merpeople wrote down on paper what had happened and Buddy gave us a call. I remembered what you had said about the lab setup by the old warehouses, and about your feline DNA kicking in, so I came to get you before you did something you'd regret. Otto is definitely something you'd regret."
"Better than White," Kay muttered. She laid down. She'd be heading back home once she was out of heat, but for now she had better sleep her way through as much of it as possible. With that in mind, she drifted off to sleep.