They're pouring out of the smoke, blending in with the thick licks of flames. I can hear the exclamations of confusion from my team in my earpiece. Have to find Alec, but my feet won't move, the smoke is disorienting me. "There's more than a hundred of them Max, we need to pull back." Mole is shouting into the receiver and I wonder if he realizes how much the loudness hurts our ears.
"We can't pull back to the forest, we'd have to get around the flames and the bad guys. We're better off fighting our way towards the middle of the compound through the ranks of normals, and holing up in the bunker."
"Naia's right, everyone make for the bunker." Kate clicks the receiver closed again and the voices leave my head. I can't see him anywhere but the battlefield is a sea of black clothing and smoke making it nearly impossible to distinguish shapes and faces.
"Alec! Alec!" In desperation I throw caution to the winds and scream out his name. If that stupid idiot has gotten himself shot, slashed, concussed, or mangled again I don't know what I'll do to him. He just needs to be more careful with himself.
Someone whistles as they rush up on my right side three nearly supersonic notes pitched only for transgenic ears, a pre-set signal to prevent friendly fire. A strong and slightly furry hand clamps down on my arm with more force than I'd imagined. Joshua doesn't even stop his forward motion but simply drags me forward rather like a rag doll, or a chew toy.
"Max be safe now, we all head for the building." Big guy isn't even out of breath, I'm impressed. I try frantically to dig my heels in so that I can slow our helter skelter progress a little bit. At this rate the world is a blur and I'm desperate to catch site of Alec so I can make sure he heard the order to pull back.
"Alec," the baby must be having a bad effect on my cardiovascular system because I'm gasping when I wouldn't ordinarily have to. "Have you seen Alec anywhere?" I tug on Josh's arm a little harder to get his attention.
"Haven't seen medium fella anywhere, but Max needs to go now, keep baby safe." Baby? How the, what the… how does he know? Before I can ponder out the bizarre mystery that is Joshua he lifts me up into his arms and makes the final dash through the door. Just as we pass over the sill I hear something. Time stills, the fighting hushes and I hear a scream, and I hear my name.
And then we're up the stairs and the rest of the team is pressing in on us.
"Where's Kate I got a good chunk taken out of my arm by one of those cheap knock-off transgenics."
"You ain't kidding one of those blond ones tried to shove her foot up my."
"But I managed to use his momentum ram him into a fence."
"Shit, who has the med kit around here Elise is bleeding out and I need to set up a transfusion."
"Has anyone seen Kate?"
"She was right behind me a minute ago, who blocked off the entrance?"
"I set up the blockade but I didn't see anyone else."
"We need to do a head count." I use my leader voice, the one that carries over a crowd. It's as though I flipped a switch on them all, they all snap to attention and drag themselves into a straight line, wounded and all.
There are more synapses in the brain than molecules in the universe, and more than that in a transgenics brain. Algebra at six, calculus at eight, enhanced vision and speed. It takes me less than ten seconds to count all nineteen of the transgenics in front of me, X's and hybrids all in various states of hurt and disrepair. Twenty two of us had flown to the island in two special ops helicopters. Alec would make twenty-three. Three of us are missing. Three of us including Alec.
"Kate is missing, who has the next highest medic rating?" My voice is almost steady but I can feel the slight tremor in my arms and legs. I'm shaking.
"I'm sure they're fine." Joshua breaks rank and reaches out softly to pat me on the arm. I smile at him tremulously and manage to hold myself still.
"Lark is the assistant medic in Terminal City she can take care of everyone's hurts." Mole is quieter than usual, his voice is oddly gruff.
I realize for the very first time what it must have felt like for them for all of those years at Manticore. I hadn't much thought about it during the battle against the Familiars, my thoughts had been very much occupied elsewhere, but over the years I've looked out for myself. I've avoided long term attachments because my life was too precarious to consider keeping friends. This is what it feels like to go into battle with a unit, with a family.
Almost guiltily it occurs to me that I don't know very much about the third missing member of the team. When we get back to Terminal City I'm going to learn all of their names, make an effort to become a real leader. Maybe Alec is right and I can do it. As long as I get him back.
"Excuse me ma'am, but do we have a plan for getting out of this?" The boy is our youngest volunteer on this mission and he still hasn't broken the military habit. It reminds me of one of Alec's stories, a mission in Minsk, an abandoned warehouse that had turned into death trap, and a few pounds of C-4 explosives. I smiled at the memory, it had been a bedtime story, the best kind.
"I think we can pull of one more miracle escape."
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The boy ducks through the lung searing smoke and pauses to hide behind a palmetto bush when another group of transgenics comes thundering past. Staying close to the forest floor he slinks from leg to leg until he reaches the side of the petite blond girl whom is his target. Her body is too limp though and he fears that life has already drained away with her blood.
He gently brushes a lock of hair from her face and kisses her already cooling cheek. A sound behind him sends a shock running through his body. The site that greets him is miraculous, a gift from the high one. Yes, a gift indeed.