Outside
By Be Boring
Chapter 18: The "Perfect" Day
The next few days seemed to go by all too slowly. Kay had been working almost nonstop just to keep herself busy during the day and spent most of her free time trying to figure out what the Reds meant by the key and what could they possibly want with it. She knew they couldn't mean a regular key, that was just too easy. Why would the Coming be in a locked up place? The Familiars wouldn't need to wait for it then, would they? The only thing she could think of was the snakes they used in their rituals. Were those snakes an important factor in the Coming?
Right now Kay was trying to figure everything out over supper with Brin. Ben and Zack had made a run into town and Ray had fallen asleep because of how much he'd been running around all day. Julie was eating with Buddy and Mary over in the main house, which left Kay and Brin to eat alone.
"Did you ever think the key might be a person?"
Kay's eyes snapped up from her plate at those words. "What made you think of that?"
Brin shrugged. "I don't know. You mentioned the snakes before because they have so much to do with Familiar ceremonies, but why couldn't the key be one of the Familiars? I don't really have any logic or anything like that to back it up, but then again none of this is really logical, is it?"
"No, I guess not. You might be right about one of the Familiars being the key, but how could they be used for the Coming? I always figured that the key would be the thing that starts the Coming, but how could a person do that?"
"Beats me. This stuff is a little strange if you ask me. Manticore certainly never prepared us to deal with a breeding cult that produces super humans. They probably didn't even know about it."
"I'm not so sure about that. What if Manticore was meant as a way of catching up to the evolution of the Familiars? I mean, this cult has been around thousands of years and Manticore made beings as strong as them in just a few decades. The way I figure it, this Sandeman guy knew about the cult and maybe knew about the Coming as well, so we were a way of protecting people. After all, we were made as protection for America. Maybe this was what we were meant to protect it from."
"Then why the missions? None of our missions have dealt with Familiars, just regular people. If we were made to protect America from the cult, then why did we never fight with them?"
"You have to remember, Sandeman left quite a few years ago and even Lydecker wasn't told about the cult. I don't think any of the other people associated with Manticore knew about the Familiars, they just used us for their own purposes. When Sandeman left, they just continued since they didn't know any better. Probably the only person who knew the true reasons behind the making of Manticore was Renfro. She knew that Max was the one Sandeman was looking for, so we have to assume she knew everything."
Brin sat back and set down her fork, leaving the rest of her food untouched. "That certainly explains a lot. What does Max have to do with all of this? She's not the key, is she?"
Kay shook her head quickly. "No, Sandeman seemed to want to stop the Coming. Why would he make the thing that starts it? You were right before, the key is probably part of the cult. Maybe Max is another sort of key though. If there's a way to start the Coming, maybe Sandeman made a way to stop it. It would be my guess that Max is what will stop it."
Brin crossed her arms over her chest and bit down gently on her lower lip. "Poor little sister. The only thing she ever wanted was a normal life, and she's about as far from that as she's ever gonna get."
Kay reached over the table and gave Brin's arm a pat. "I'm sure she'll get the normal life she's always wanted as soon as this is all over."
A different and slightly groggy voice startled them both. "As soon as what's all over?"
Both women looked over to see Ray standing next to the table, rubbing his eyes and staring blearily at them. Kay didn't know what to say to him, but figured the truth was as good as anything. "The Coming."
"Is it gonna happen soon?"
"Why, are you scared?"
He smiled and shook his head. "No, I'm safe from it."
Brin and Kay looked at each other nervously. Kay hated being reminded that the sweet little boy was part of those people. "Want anything to eat?"
Those seemed to be the magic words. Ray's eyes lit up and he immediately sat down at his spot at the table. The second Brin set down a clean plate in front of him, he filled it up with the food that was on the table. Any thought of the Coming was pushed out of his head as he started to eat. Kay turned her head towards the window as she heard Zack's truck pull in. She needed to be with Ben right now. With all the thoughts of what was going on, the only time she enjoyed herself was when she was with him. It wasn't just sleeping with him, as some people tended to think, it was being around him in general. She liked eating with him, talking to him, taking walks out in the woods with him, and even arguing with him. Just his presence seemed to make everything alright. His smile when he walked through the door brightened her up instantaneously.
"What have you girls been talking about while I've been away?"
"Nothing interesting. Can we go for a walk?"
Ben looked a little surprised, but he nodded. As soon as they were in the woods and out of the sight of everyone else, he put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead.
"I know you were talking about something big. Something to do with the Reds and that key thing?"
"We were just throwing out theories, nothing concrete."
"With the kid right there?"
"Well, he had just come out when you got there. Let's talk about something else."
"Okay, how would you feel about some time away from everything?"
"What do you mean?"
Ben stopped walking and turned to face her, the sweet, gentle smile that Kay had grown to love on his face. "I mean taking a little vacation away from here. Before you start to fight me about this, we're not going to be missed that much. Brin can handle the horses, Julie will be watching Ray, and Zack has already agreed to take over some of my work for a couple days. We could go anywhere you want, as long as it's a good ways away from here. What do you think about that?"
Kay struggled to come up with an excuse, but couldn't. Ben was right, everything would be just fine without them for a couple days, and she desperately needed a vacation. "Fine, but can I bring along my cellph--"
"No," he cut her off. "A vacation will also mean no contact with the farm, got it?"
"Yeah," Kay grumbled. She didn't know why she sounded so upset, some time away would do her a world of good. She was even getting excited about the prospect of not having anything to do or worry about for a little while. Ben grinned down at her.
"Good. Where do you want to go? We can go pretty much anywhere since you made a few changes." He touched her hair and gently pulled it behind her shoulders. Kay had dyed her hair deep auburn and cut it so that it was about four inches below her barcode, then got a perm. Just the change in hair had made a drastic change in her appearance. Brin couldn't stop gawking at her after she had it done, saying that she wished she could look like that with just a little hair touch-up. Ben had called her a model and even Zack had given her an appreciative glance. When she had explained what she'd done over the phone to Max, Max had laughingly told her that perms were the best thing for a girl, that was what she had had before she got caught by Manticore. Alec had teased her about becoming too girly, then their conversation had become more serious. He wanted to know when Ben was going to reveal himself to Max because he had just found out the whole story a few days ago from Max and knew how much it was tearing her up inside.
"Maybe we should go see Max together."
Ben's eyes lit up. He had missed Max and hated her blaming herself for his death when he was alive and had asked her to kill him anyways. "Yeah, that sounds good."
"Well then, it's a plan. Almost sounds like a perfect day."
They walked in silence for at least an hour, then came home to pack. Tomorrow would be a big day.
Seattle had never looked like such a happy place. Ben and Kay were just driving into town and were headed for Logan's. Max would most likely be there, and maybe Logan would let them stay for a while. She had never felt such a letdown when they reached Logan's apartment and he wasn't there.
"Dammit, where did he go now? He's never here when I want him to be!"
Ben reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. "He probably just went out for a little while. I'm sure he'll be back soon. When I stayed here before he didn't seem like the type of guy to just take off without letting anyone know."
Kay muttered every curse she could think of under her breath, then ran a hand through her hair."You're right, he'll be back soon. I just want this day to go perfectly."
He placed his arms around her and smiled down at her. "It will, it's just a little delayed."
An hour later, Kay was ready to burst. She hated having to wait for anything and this was important to her. She wanted to be able to bring something more than trouble into her sister's life. She finally got up from where she had been sitting by Ben on the couch and grabbed the phone. She knew Alec's number, maybe he could tell her where everyone was.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's Kay. Do you know where Logan and Max are?"
"Nice to hear from you too. They're both here with me, in a manner of speaking."
"What?"
"Well, we're all in the same general area. I'm next to Logan right now, and Max is in the sewers looking for Joshua."
"Why is she looking for him there?"
"It's a mess over here. Joshua started liking this blind girl called Annie, and he ran into the sewers with her earlier because he was being chased by some kids. If you turned on the TV, you'd see what I'm talking about. There's police and feds running all over the place here."
"What about White? I'm sure he's shown up by now."
"Actually, that's what worries me. He was here earlier, but some police in the sewers reported being attacked by a girl and since then he's disappeared."
"He knows she's down there and he's looking for her."
"What makes you say that?"
"That's just the way he operates. Do you think there's a chance they'll get out of there without getting caught?"
"If there is a chance, it's very slim. I really don't see it happening, but I'll help if I can."
"I'm coming right now."
"What? Where are you?"
"Logan's apartment, waiting for him and Max. Like I said, I'm coming."
Kay hung up the phone before Alec could ask any more questions and turned to Ben. "Let's go."
It wasn't hard to find where they were, people were running around everywhere. Kay spotted Logan's Aztec with Alec standing next to it, then spotted something she wasn't so happy to see. The Skeptic was walking through the crowd, headed out of it. Looking around, Kay noticed the other Reds headed in the same direction. Kay nudged Ben in the side and followed them. Ben didn't really know who she was going after since he had never seen the Reds, but he trusted her anyways.
The Reds came to a stop at a bridge where there was an entrance to the sewers. When Kay looked at where the entrance was, she noticed the people guarding it had already been knocked out. It must have been where White went in. When the Reds went in, Ben grabbed Kay's arm to stop her from following.
"Who are those people and why are we following them?"
"They're the people with the implants in their heads that I told you about, and we're following them because they're probably trying to get to Max."
"Why?"
"I don't know, but they've gone after her before. That was a different group of course, but this group might want her too."
Ben was quiet now and even led the way into the sewers. Once they moved far enough in that the light from the open door could no longer be seen, Kay heard someone groan as they approached. Just as they met coming around a corner, Ben threw up an elbow to hit their visitor in the face. As the body slumped to ground, Kay studied the face.
"Sketchy, you idiot," she grumbled. (A/N: Sorry, couldn't resist!)
They moved on through the sewers, trying to catch up. Finally they could hear the Reds further ahead, it would be easy to follow them with how loud they were. Kay was surprised when she heard the last fragment of the Skeptic's sentence.
"...get the information we need."
Kay looked at Ben questioningly, but he just shrugged back. What information could these guys possibly need from Max? They were no longer talking, so Ben and Kay had to be even more careful to stay quiet. The minutes seemed to stretch into hours, and it started to feel like time had stopped. Since there was no light in the sewers, it was impossible to tell time. For all they knew, they could have been in there for days and not known it. Kay was nearly about to fall over from boredom when Ben threw an arm in front of her to stop her from walking forward. She froze instantly and listened for what had caused him to want to stop. Up ahead they could hear a woman's voice.
"Hello? Is somebody there? Hello? Hello?"
The Reds had stopped at the sound of her voice and hadn't moved from their spot at the junction up ahead. Since Ben and Kay had stopped, what were those footsteps she could hear? Kay ducked under Ben's arm and moved forward towards the Reds. Their eyes were focused on something in front of them and they didn't even notice her approach. Kay positioned herself so she could see between their heads to what they were looking at. There was a young black woman standing at a corner of the junction, clutching to the wall and not seeming to notice the three men and one woman standing in front of her. Taking a closer look at the woman's eyes, Kay realized she couldn't see anything. That must be the blind girl, Annie, that Alec was talking about. Kay could still hear the footsteps coming towards the junction. They weren't coming from straight ahead, but from the corridor on the left. There was too much steam to see anything clearly, but she could see the shape of someone starting to form as they got closer. The Reds backed up so they wouldn't be seen by the newcomer, and Kay leapt up and grabbed the large pipes on the ceiling and pulled herself up. She slid silently so she was over Annie, then watched quietly.
Ames White walked out of the cloud of steam and stood in front of Annie. "Don't worry, miss. It's all over."
He meant that all too literally. Kay watched as Annie smiled in relief, then had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from crying out in shock as he reached out with both hands and twisted Annie's head around. He did it fast, but not fast enough to stop Annie's scream of horror. Kay was stunned as White turned and walked away as if he had done nothing more horrible than step on a bug. Kay was shaking with fury and was about to jump down and run after him when the Reds started moving forward. White had already moved out of sight and it looked as though they were going to follow him. The Skeptic spoke so softly that Kay had to lean down to hear him.
"When we get him, take him out the way we came. He'll tell us what we need to know."
Kay's eyes widened as she realized how stupid she had been. They had killed Greg because he didn't tell them what they wanted to know about the Coming. Why had she assumed they wanted Max when she had known all along that White was down here too? She mentally counted to ten and dropped down onto the shoulders of the closest man. She grabbed his mouth before he could alert the others and snapped his neck in one swift moment. The others turned around at the sound but Ben slammed his fist into the back of the other unknown Red. He lurched forward but managed to stay on his feet until Kay grabbed his head in both hands and twisted sharply. His body fell limply to the floor and Kay turned to face the Skeptic.
"Do you really want to face two pissed-off X5s on your own? That wouldn't be wise."
The Skeptic eyed them both, then reached down and picked up his companions' bodies. Ben raised an eyebrow at this.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm removing their bodies so the technology in them won't be found. Just let me pass, I have no business with either of you and no interest in fighting you. You don't need to waste your time with me."
"Damn right," Kay growled as she stepped off to the side to let him through, then paused for a moment. "Why did you attack me before if you have no business with me?"
He turned to look at her in surprise, then recognized her after another good look. "We were led to believe something that isn't true. We found out otherwise after our encounter with you."
Now Kay was completely confused, but at least he wasn't looking to kill her. She'd find out later what he meant. After he disappeared around the corner, Ben spoke up.
"Want to go find Max?"
Kay shrugged and turned to him to get her mind off the confusion of what had just happened. "I guess. Let's stop by Logan's first."
He nodded as they headed back in the direction they came. As soon as they reached the main street, they were stunned by the amount of people still running around. Kay noticed the ambulance right away, then stopped so she could hear the reporter closest to her.
"We're here to bring you breaking news in this shocking development. Police have now confirmed that the cause of death was a snapped neck. Witnesses say it would have taken someone with superhuman strength to account for the state in which the body was found. Once again, a tragic ending to tonight's events: the kidnapped girl, Annie Fisher, was found dead at the scene just a few moments ago, murdered by her abductor, who remains at large."
Kay walked away before she could hear anymore. "They're talking about Joshua. They think he killed Annie!" She looked across the street and saw White standing there, watching the reporter who was talking. Kay could have killed him right now for what he had done. He had actually ruined the life of one of the most innocent people she had ever met. Joshua wouldn't be the same after this, he was too sensitive. She jumped when she felt Ben touch her back.
"I think we should go now. This probably isn't the best time to go see Max."
Kay nodded, feeling horribly numb. So much for the perfect day.