Chapter 9: Crude Discovery
Not a full memory. Just a flicker, a glimer, that quickly melted away from Max's mind as quickly as it had come. The memory was short, it was at a time when she had freedom. She was riding a bike, her bike, but racing with someone. That was all she could remember. She picked up the object that had lit her candle of memory. A bottle of oil. Oil for a bike, for a motorcycle. She dropped it into a box beside where it had been. Looking at the box labeled, "Max's Shoes", she heard the door open to the apartment. She turned quickly, and cat like, briskly walked to the door with her back to the wall.
"Max? Are you here?"
Cindy's voice broke through the air. Max came out of the room that she was hiding in.
She looked around cautiously. Cindy walked forward with open arms,
"Oh my God, Max, where have you been? I thought you were dead girl!"
But Max knocked Cindy's arms out of the way, she yelled,
"Don't! Don't do that again."
Cindy walked forward, she asked in a concerend voice, "Max, whats wrong?" Cindy walked forward again. But Max backed away, she said, "Listen to what I told you, don't come near me. Even though you, you know, like saved my ass back there, I still won't hesitate to kick yours."
Cindy stopped and looked at her friend, biting her lip she said in choked tears, "ok, well. Um, why don't you go change or something?"
Max looked at Cindy with curious eyes. Then turning, Max headed into the room she had just come out of. Max shut the door, grabbing a black tank top and a pair of black leather pants. Once she changed into the new clothes, she decided to go out to the living room and start her pushups. Opening the door, she heard Cindy say,
"uh huh, yeah ok. Yeah alright. Got it. Nope, Yeah, ok, uh huh. Ok, bye."
CLICK
"Who were you talking to?" Max asked suspicously now looking around even more nervously. Expecting at any moment a Manticore soldier to come crashing through the window.
"Um, uh, I was talking to Oh my God, Max what, what happened to you?"
Max looked at herself in a mirror that was leaned against a wall. She gasped, and turned back to Cindy, holding her arms, and glared at her. She opened her mouth and an angrey whisper came out, "Don't tell anyone. No one can know about this."
Runnining back into the room she just came out of, she grabbed her jacket that she still had from when she had escaped Manticore soldiers. Putting it on quickly, she came out of the room for the third time. This time two people waited for her.
"Max." Logan's voice was directed towards her.
Cindy was in a corner, obviously expecting the worst. Max looked at the two of them. She said in a stressed voice, "Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing this?"
She glared at Logan, "What are you doing here? I am not going to go back with you."
Logan answered calmly, with a now swolen lip, "Max, you have to calm down."
Max backed away a step or two.
"Max, please. We aren't going to hurt you. We don't want to hurt you. Max come on."
Max looked at him, then around the room. She didn't like it here. So small, so confined, like a cage, like the cages at Manticore. She hadn't noticed it before, but she was uneasy now. She didn't like how open the place was either, yet it had so many walls. Just like Manticore. Just like the tiny boxed in rooms, like the bunkers, like the lab, the disipline room. Her eyes passed over to the mirror, she did a double take. A built black man was aiming from the window with a gun. She turned around just in time to see and hear the gun shoot.
With a ping, a dart was sent into Max's side. She turned around and looked at Logan and Cindy with desperate eyes. Then fell to the ground
"Thanks Bling," Logan said to the shooter in the window.
"No problem. I figured that hanging out at the shooting range on my free time would come in useful."
Logan gave a wry smile. He turned to Cindy, she was still in the corner looking at Max's stunned body. He told Cindy, "You were great. Thank you. We are going to take her back to a safe house. She can't stay here. Manticore might find her."
Cindy swallowed hard, she looked at Logan. She said to him with a voice full of worry, "Logan, they did something to her in Manticore. Her arms, they are all, all." She couldn't finish the sentence. Looking away from Max, she held her hands on the side of the counter.
Bling, seeing as he was the closet to Max's body, moved his hands towards Max's jacket. He pulled one sleeve up. Backing up immediately. Logan merely stood there in shock. He heard Cindy behind him shuffle her feet. Logan walked towards Max now. Bling turned away saying, "My God."
All over Max's arm were scars, only they looked different. Blisters and bumps the size of dimes and pennys ran from her wrist to her elbow. Light pink and white scars flecked her forearm. Pits, and peeling skin covered the section of flesh that was visible.
Cindy told them, "it's worse."
Bling pulled the sleeve on Max's jacket completely off. Pits and odd bumps ran along her skin. There were blisters the size of penny's and dimes there to. Little white and pale pink scars, even some strange light purple ones sprinkled her arm in sections here and there. It was worse by Max's wrist and arm joint. There were scabbed gash marks on the tenderside of her elbow. Open sores ran up and down her wrist. Dead skin was peeling in large amounts. Her arm was in an odd angel between her shoulder and elbow.
After about ten minutes of silence Cindy finnaly turned around,
"What did they do to her? What did they do to her Logan?"
Logan was quiet. A cold rush of hatred filled him. It felt as if his entire body had turned to frozen ice and his heart a block of iron. He was angrey, furious, undescribably p-d off at whoever had done this to Max. Whoever could do this to anyone for that matter! Now he almost wished that Max had died. Whatever she had been through to get like this, a gunshot through the chest would probably have been a night at the bar compared to this. Logan took action,
"Bling, change of plans. You go back to my place and wait to see if Syl or Krit calls. Cindy, you come with me. We are going to take her back to Sabastions he might know what to do Well? LETS GO!"
Bling got up and looked at Logan and asked in an unsure voice, "Logan are you sure?"
"Yes," he answered shortly.
Bling opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. Logan walked over to Max's still limp body and picked her up.
Cindy just said, "I'll get her jacket."
Logan nodded and walked out of the door with Max cradled in his arms. Cindy sniffed, and looked around the apartment and said, "Why did they do this to you Max?" Then she shut the door.
