"What is it?" She asked and frowned.
"It's bad." Joshua told her with a shake of his head. "Very bad. Very very bad."
"What's bad?"
"Just come." He said and grabbed her by the hand. He began dragging her to where he wanted to take her, but that wasn't fast enough for him, so she picked her up and ran the rest of the way. He wove his way through most of the twenty-one blocks that made up Terminal City before he finally stopped in the middle of the street. He set her down and pointed to where a large group of transgenics were gathered. "Down there. I - I don't want to go."
She nodded slowly and made her way down to the large group of transgenics. They parted when they saw her coming, allowing her a clear path to whatever lay in the middle of the circle. She gasped and her hand flew up to her mouth when she saw the sight before her. The bruised, battered, and bloodied bodies of eight transgenics were scattered around in pairs, one over the other to form a crude X.
She looked at all of the faces, hoping that she didn't know any of them, but sadly she did. Tru and Orion had been roughly thrown together as an X. She felt like crying for so many reasons, but told herself she had to stay strong for those around her. She took a deep breath and removed her hand from her mouth. She turned to the nearest person, a boy that couldn't have been older than fifteen. She was going to tell him to go get Mole and the others, but the confused and hurt look on his face told her that he wouldn't be able to make it, so she just put a hand on his shoulder and a brave smile on her face.
"Go get Mole and the others." She said instead to a twenty-something man. He nodded and rushed off. "Everyone else... I don't know. Just - just get out of here."
The surrounding transgenics, about thirty or so, all dispersed, whispering about what they thought had happened. Some went to the main buildings of Terminal City, others just went into their houses nearby. The boy disappeared from Max's side, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Orion's lifeless face to see where he went.
She stood there, alone, for what seemed like a decade and a half. She wanted to run and never stop. She wanted to go and never look back and never regret it. She wanted a life, not what she had before her. As far as she was concerned, she was staring at fate and fate was wickedly grinning and telling her, "You're next."
She took a step back, then ran into the nearest alley and vomited behind a garbage can. After she had emptied her stomach of everything, she wiped her mouth with the back of her gloved hand, then in a fit of rage she tore the gloves off her hands and threw them hard against the brick wall across from her. She shook her head then buried it in her hands and let the tears flow freely.
"Oh God." Alec whispered when he came upon the scene.
The cigar fell from Mole's lips and lay forgotten as he stared out at the bodies. Joshua hung back and whimpered like a small puppy. Aaron stood, staring out and emotionless. Logan turned away, unable to take in the gruesome sight.
"Can't I catch a break?" He heard a weak, raspy voice softly say. He turned and walked into the nearest alley, where he immediately spotted Max. Her hands were now in her lap and she was resting her head against the wall. Without a sound a he went over to her and kneeled down.
"What?" He asked softly.
She reached for his hand and held it tightly. "It seems like whenever something goes my way, other people have to get hurt. It sounds selfish, but... it's true. Maybe I just shouldn't be happy."
"Max..."
"No, this didn't happen until I was happy." She said weakly. "Everything was hunky-dory until I got a moment of happiness. It happens all the time."
"Max, even if you weren't happy, this would of happened."
"Are you sure? Because I think it's some messed up karma or something that has to kick other people down when I'm up."
"Max."
She didn't lift her head, just moved her eyes to the mouth of the alley where Aaron was standing and stared at him. She made no move to speak, so he decided to start. "I heard what you said just now. Max, it has nothing to do with you. I was just running over the statistics in my head and I realized that Eight's presence led up to this. I'm such an idiot for not realizing earlier... I could just jump off a building."
"You were busy helping me." She said. "Don't jump."
He looked at her a moment, then before he turned to leave, he told her, "Stay away from the edge yourself."
"What do you want to do?" Logan asked her quietly.
"First, I want to get up."
Logan nodded and stood himself, then helped her up. "Now what?"
"Now I want to find who did this... and I want to kill them." She waited for him to say that it would make her just as bad as them, but he didn't. He just gave her a supportive nod of his head and took her hand in his.
* * *
West wiped the blood off his dagger then kissed the blade. He looked out the window, watching the few transgenics who turned up to help 452 stand around, looking shocked. He chuckled grimly and moved out of the window.
"Crowd's gone, but 452's got her little brigade down there." He told his companions and joined one of them on the ratty sofa.
He had brought a few of the Brothers along with him to help with the transgenics. Hunt, Ebel, Batise, and Chavez were some of the best warriors the Familiars had to offer and that was something that would be needed if they were going to start a small invasion that would eventually lead to a full-scale war between Familiars and transgenics all over the city.
"They'll never figure it out." Hunt said as he lit his cigarette. "They're not smart enough for that."
"They've got the man of Voltaire though." Ebel said.
"He's not a 100%." Chavez told him. "There's a 3% chance the guy won't figure it out, and since they're not stormin' in here right now, I'd say he's clueless."
"Ya know West, I gotta hand it to ya." Batise said and clapped West on the back. "That puttin' 'em in the shape of an X was genius."
West smiled smugly and leaned back. "Gotta send the message."
* * *
Mole and Aaron were making slow work of pulling the bodies off one another and resting them carefully on the ground, making sure to close the eyes of the ones that were still open. A lump formed in Aaron's throat as he gently pulled Tru's body off of Orion's, and he grimaced as he closed Orion's dead eyes. He had been the closest thing he had to a friend and now... now he was gone.
"Get something to cover them with." Mole said to Alec sadly.
Alec nodded and went to the nearest occupied house, hoping to collect a sheet. He walked past Max and Logan as they came out of the alley, but didn't look at them. He wasn't sure if he could face anybody at the moment.
Mole tried to keep his gaze off of Max, but he couldn't help it. His eyes always seemed to find their way to the team leader when something had gone wrong, and he couldn't stop it now.
"We're going to kill whoever did this." Max told him boldly. "I'm not playing games anymore, and screw the public opinion. They're going to pay with their lives."
Mole gave a half-nod, unable to process Max's words at the moment. How she managed to change so drastically in the way of revenge, and yet grasp Logan's hand like a frightened child was unexplainable to him.
Alec came back to them, carrying two sheets. He quickly spread them over the bodies then turned to Max. "What - what do we do now?"
Max looked at the spots on the sheets where blood was starting to seep through, and said like a scared child, "We're going to take care of them."
* * *
Hunt held his cigarette tightly between his lips as he spread a map of Terminal City over the rickety coffee table. He uncapped a red marker and made four Xs where the bodies had been placed, then looked at West.
"I think we're going here next." West said and pointed at a place a few blocks away.
"Why not up by the main buildings?" Ebel asked.
"That's where most of them will be." Hunt answered for him. "If we get caught now, it'll never pan out in the long run."
"So, this is really happening, huh?" Batise said. "We're finally getting rid of the scum?"
"Looks like." West said with a smile.
* * *
Max walked out first, the others behind her, each of them carrying on of the bodies covered in a sheet. She stopped in front of the gate and told the nearest officer that she wanted to talk to whoever was in charge. He nodded and walked off to a car. He tapped on the window and pointed out Max. In no time, Eight was standing on the other side of the fence.
"You want to talk to me, 452?"
"No." She told him flatly. "I don't want to talk about anything."
She then turned to look at her friends holding the dead transgenics, then turned back to him sadly. "I want to bury our dead."
Eight wondered for a moment if she could possibly be serious. "Excuse me?"
"Eight of our people were murdered." She told him. "We have nowhere to bury them here. We want a plot of land and free access to it."
Before he could answer, his cellphone rang. He apologized and answered it. It was Fourteen.
"You're being terminated."
A shot rang out and the cellphone fell to the ground. Max looked down in shock and saw that there was a bullet hole in Eight's chest, then he quickly fell next to his cellphone.
Max and the others looked up wildly, expecting to see someone on a nearby rooftop or in a window... but there was nothing. She shook her head and signaled for them to fall back. They ran into the nearest building, shutting the door behind them.
"What the hell was that?" Mole asked and gently laid down his morbid cargo. The others followed suit.
"I don't know." Max said. "But we're going to get blamed for it."
* * *
West grinned and snapped his cellphone closed. He knew it wouldn't be long before Hunt called and told him the job was done. He stretched and propped his feet up on the coffee table, then looked at the others. "Life is good, gentlemen, life is good."