Author's Note: I'm the master of disaster.
The Gift of Daylight
Chapter 11 : Casualties of War
So get back, back, back to the disaster,
My heart's beating faster,
Holding on to feel the same.
Location: Fudgy Buddy, Factory. Seattle, Washington
Time: 3:45 PM PST
"Got it?" Brin asked, gripping the doorknob firmly.
"Got it," Zeke confirmed, "open the door."
Brin kicked the last piece of furniture out of the way and yanked the door open to give Zeke a clear view of the hallway. From over his shoulder, Rianne and Krit continuously threw expensive bottles of moonshine, one by one, into the vacant, but soon to be full hallway. When the bottles broke, large amounts of liquid splashed against the hallway's walls and coated the surfaces with it. Zeke slapped his hands together and cracked his fingers. He gritted his teeth and summoned the energy inside of him. He thought of Davis and Elena, then slammed his fist against the floor, a carpet of fire erupting and ripping its way through the hallway. The flames began to engulf the walls and ceiling also, creeping its way to wherever the liquid rested. Before long, the entire hallway was one blazing inferno.
"That should stall them for a while," Krit said, satisfied.
Brin quickly shut the door firmly, then began moving the furniture back into place.
Meanwhile, as Krit could see through the window, Rianne was hovering in the air, mid-way between the Priestess's office and the flagpole. Max had her foot bordering the edge of the window, her eyes calculating the distance from there to Rianne. She then turned her attention downwards to where Gem and the hummer were waiting patiently. Apparently Gem had ran back to the parking lot to fetch another hummer as to make room for the large group about to make their escape.
With the alarm still blaring, the Familiar children in the schools had been ordered to stay in place and out of the way. Most of the soldiers were most likely running up the flights of stairs to get to the Priestess's office since the elevator had been disabled by Krit and Syl. All that was left to do was to get ... down.
"All right, Syl, you ready?" Max ran a critical eye over her comrade, examining the woman's use of couch pillows as temporary gloves. It was a smart move, especially when metal left outside at this heat would be blistering.
"Ready," she confirmed, gauging the distance between the building's edge and Rianne one last time.
"Let's do it," Max quipped, eyeing Syl carefully.
Syl took a deep breath, bracing herself for the physical task at hand. She took a few steps back and stretched her muscles. Then, after the quick mental and physical preparation, she tore off running forward towards the window. If she didn't make it, then, hopefully, Rianne would catch her in time before she fell. And if that wasn't possible, then at least it was a quick death.
Syl felt her legs tighten as she braced herself one last time. With all the strength given to her by Manticore, she pushed off the edge of the building with her strong legs and threw her arms forward to reach Rianne.
Rianne was in a handstand position, floating with ease in the air fifteen feet away from the window. She stretched her hands out and caught the leaping Syl. "Gotcha," Rianne called, sinking a bit because she was now holding Syl's weight. Then immediately afterwards, with a slingshot effect, Rianne swung Syl around and threw her towards the flagpole. Syl was propelled with an excess of momentum, more than enough to reach the flagpole. She grasped the pole with both hands and slid down to the ground in fireman fashion.
It works, thought so. Max let out a sigh of relief, as did everyone else. "All right, let's go one by one. Krit, then Brin."
The two X5's nodded, Brin looking confident now that she had seen Syl. The two went one at a time, just as instructed, and mimicked Syl's actions. They got the same results, all of them landing on the ground safely and jumping into the hummers immediately afterwards.
"Alec, can you make it?" Max called out, with a bit of concern in her voice. He was still bleeding, but it looked like only his upper body was battered.
"My legs are fine," Alec replied, already prepping himself for the jump to Rianne, then the throw to the flagpole. When Alec reached the ground without incident, it left Max and Zeke in the room alone.
Max could hear the panicked yells of Familiar agents as they reached the hallway and discovered the tunnel of fire. "We're running out of time, Zeke, can you jump the distance?"
"No," he replied quickly. "But my body mass is lighter than yours, Rianne can hover me down after you're done. You go."
"You sure?" Max asked hesitantly, peering at the barricaded door from the corner of her eye. There was loud banging on it.
"Positive," Zeke assured, drawing his gun and aiming it at the door in case anyone made it through. By the look of the barricading job Brin did, he was fairly sure no one would get in until after they all escaped. But it was just a precaution.
Max didn't say anything else since they were low on time. She cracked her knuckles and took a few steps back. A few seconds later, she was soaring through the air towards Rianne, and a few seconds more, she slammed lightly against the flagpole and slid down its length. The metal pole in the sun was, as expected, hot as hell. She cringed, imagining the blisters that would form on her fingers once this was all over. When Max's feet hit the ground, she ran towards the hummer.
Syl, Krit, Gem, Alec, and Brin were all in one hummer, looking anxiously as the events unfolded.
"You guys blaze to Terminal City," Max commanded, looking up the side of the building and seeing Familiars staring at her. They were yelling commands for a group to rush down there and stop the X5s' escape.
"Damn, we've been spotted," Syl cursed.
"Some are on their way back down," Krit tossed in, "I'm guessing eight to ten."
"All right, here's the plan," Max spoke quickly but clearly. "You guys go and don't look back. Show Logan what you found and he'll know what to do with it. We'll meet you there."
"Bad plan, no way," Krit protested. "We never leave a member of the squad behind."
Gem nodded in agreement. "We'll fend the soldiers off if they get here before Zeke and Rianne make it down."
"No, too risky. If we get captured and lose the information now, all of this will have been for nothing," Max countered.
"But Max—" Krit started again.
"—This is a direct order, soldier," Max said coldly, feeling the soldier in her awaken.
"Then it's decided. You heard her," Brin snapped. "Let's get the hell out of here. And ... be careful, Max," she added. The other X5 seemed to radiate concern. But as always, the logical Brin knew this was the best course of action and agreed to it.
"We'll ... see you later then," Gem said out the window, still sounding reluctant. Nevertheless, she shifted gears and gunned the acceleration. Before long, the hummer had made it onto the main road and was rushing towards Terminal City.
Max jumped into the second hummer, its engine already on. "Come on, you two, hurry up," she muttered, peering out the window and looking up. It wouldn't be long before the Familiars found both of them. Just a matter of heartbeats.
Max saw Rianne moving towards the window and Zeke jumping forward to clutch her ankles tightly. The two of them descended down the length of the building slowly and shakily— but surely. The Familiars had already extinguished the hallway fire and broke into the office, a group of them were peering out the window and down towards Zeke and Rianne. When the two Elements were hovering near the twentieth floor, gunshots began raining down on them. Instinctively, Max searched for a weapon, her eyes falling on a rifle. She reached for it, then retracted her hand quickly. "Eva," she muttered, thinking back to the traumatic moment in her life when her sister was gunned down by Lydecker. Ever since then, Max avoided guns at all costs. But now the cost was too high. With the Elements needing cover fire, she found herself stuck in an inner struggle. Max looked out the hummer's window again, seeing the two still hovering slowly downwards amidst the gunshots. Rianne had a fresh bullet wound on her shoulder, and Zeke was cringing in pain.
At the last minute, Max overcame her fear and snatched the rifle out of the backseat. She cocked it and was relieved to find it already loaded and ready to go. "Let's see if I remember how to do this," she muttered, rolling down the window and thrusting the barrel outwards. With her eye focused through the scope, she began firing.
It was a long time since she fired a gun, but the instant it came to life, it felt ... right. Max was a natural, using the deadly weapon like an extension of her body. She took out four Familiars by the window easily, their bodies dropping from the top like rain.
By the time the Elements set foot on the ground, Zeke was reduced to carrying Rianne's wounded body towards the hummer. He yanked the back door open and set her body face down in the back seat, then slammed it shut and climbed into the passenger seat. Max retracted the rifle and shifted the hummer's gears, slamming her boot on the gas. The large armored vehicle jerked forward and kicked up dust as it accelerated forward and away from the Familiars that had made it back to ground. Zeke ducked when gunshots sprinkled against the back of the car, causing it to zoom left and right. The hummer's tires screeched as it jumped off the dirt and landed onto the concrete pavement.
"We made it!" Zeke shouted in relief, slapping his forehead in disbelief. "Crap, I can't believe we made it," he sounded as surprised as ever, leaning heavily against his seat in relief.
"Not yet we haven't," Max retorted, glancing up at her rear view mirror. "They'll be chasing us, no doubt. Can you work this?" she shoved the warm rifle into his hands.
Zeke took it uncertainly and grimaced. "Not ... really, no," he confessed. "I'm a bad shot."
"You look through the scope, and you pull the trigger," she explained, with no hint of sarcasm in her voice, "it's not that hard, really."
"Guess I don't have a choice. Yeah okay, I'll try," Zeke tucked the rifle under his shoulder and turned around. He made the best of the cramped space in the passenger seat to get into a good shooting position.
"When they come, you take out their tires first," Max ordered, "don't bother going for the engine."
Zeke nodded beside her.
"Hey Rianne, how you doing?" Max called out.
Zeke blinked, Rianne having slipped his mind completely. "She took a few shots, but she's tough," Zeke replied, when Rianne didn't. "Won't you, Rianne?" Zeke asked tentatively. When she didn't respond, he slid the rifle out of the way and gazed around and down at her. "... Rianne?" he called out again, grasping her shoulder and nudging it a bit. Zeke then pulled Rianne over and saw that the bullets hadn't just hit her shoulder— there were three crimson circles on her chest.
"Oh ... no," he said exhaustedly, his breath suddenly caught in his throat. "No no no," he muttered continuously. "Rianne, come on, wake up," he called out, shaking her more.
Max blinked, sparing a glance over her shoulder to spot Rianne's lifeless body. She felt a new sense of dread in the pit of her stomach, her face muscles tightening into a frown. She turned around to face forward again, her facial expression carved of pure stone. Max pressed down on the gas a little harder as the hummer roared down the road at dangerous speeds, and exhaled deeply.
"I'm sorry," Max murmured in condolence, but her words were lost in a river of Zeke's grief. First Davis, then Elena, and now Rianne. Zeke continued sobbing quietly into his arm, refusing to display his tear filled eyes to Max.
"Come on, Rianne," Zeke urged, Max heard his voice crack. "Wake up, please," he pleaded, shaking her shoulder again, but to no avail. "If you leave me, I'll ... I'll be all alone."
Max shut her eyes for a few heartbeats, refusing adamantly to turn around. She tried her best to tune out Zeke's restrained sobs. So ... so she had failed. Max had failed as a leader, losing one of her own in the line of fire. If she hadn't waited so long to pick up the rifle, or ... if they had devised a different escape plan, or maybe if— no wait, this was useful. There were no 'ifs' in battle, there were only 'do's or 'don'ts'. Rianne was a soldier. Like Eva, like Tinga, like Zack, like Davis, like Zeke, and ... like her. They all knew the risks of battle and they willfully entered themselves in it. As long as there was something to fight for— there would always be fighters.
Max felt the ache in her heart thinking of Tinga and Eva, Zeke's immense grief comparable to the grief Max had experienced when she lost her own siblings. As Brin had said early on, this was a war. And despite the many times Max had denied it— in the end— her wise sister proved to be right. This was a war. And in war, there were always losses.
There'll be a time for mourning later. But ... it's not now. We're so close ... we can't stop now, she thought to herself repeatedly. She drilled the words into her head, and with a heavy heart, continued driving towards Terminal City with a newfound sense of strength.
It was a quiet drive home.
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Location: Terminal City. Seattle, Washington.
Time: 5:10 PM PST
The ride home was longer than expected, even if Max was driving in speeds excess of one hundred miles per hour. They had lost an hour dodging and battling their Familiar pursuers, but in the end, they reached Terminal City in one piece. Well, the hummer lost a few pieces of its back and front bumpers, but that was beside the point. Max's cellphone rang the second it got reception. Max stole one last glance at the rear view mirror to make sure it was clear before she picked it up.
"What's the 411?" she asked.
"It's Clemente," his deep voice answered, sounding tired and relieved at the same time. "Why haven't you been answering your phone?"
"Too busy getting shot at and stealing the cure from the Conclave," Max snapped. "What's up?"
"Your friends told us you were separated in the escape, fair enough. Glad to hear you alive," he replied, something lingering in his voice ...
"Clemente," she said warningly, as if urging him to get to the point.
"All right, here's the deal. The government was prepared to storm Terminal City under influence from the public. But since you returned with the discs ... the government has agreed to cease aggression against T.C.," Clemente announced proudly.
Max's heart jumped, and throughout this entire thing, it was the first time she smiled.
"But," Clemente stated.
Max frowned a bit, 'but' was always a bad thing.
"But if the discs prove to be phony, the military's coming in to sweep everything up. I've pulled all the strings I could, but I can't change their mind on that."
Max exhaled. "The discs are good," she assured.
"We're sending a few agents in bio-suits with equipment to run tests in Terminal City and decode those discs, they'll be there when you return. The media's been allowed to stay but the angry mob's disappeared out of fear that they might catch Trigeria and drop dead," Clemente didn't sound the least bit amused.
"Fair enough," Max conceded with a smirk. "Trigeria?" she asked, unfamiliar with that word.
"The FDC's calling the plague that now. Death toll's up to a half a million and rising," Clemente said despairingly. "I think it has six stages, after the fourth, it becomes just a matter of time. No offense, but I'm staying clear of Terminal City too."
"None taken," she quipped, "but about the computer team in bio-suits, I think as long as you drop off the equipment, Logan's better off working alone."
Clemente paused for a long moment, he started to say something, then paused again. "... Max," he started slowly, "where exactly are you right now?"
"Half an hour out of Seattle," she replied hesitantly, dismissing his strange behavior. "... Why?" she asked.
"I see," Clemente remarked, his attitude shifting from urgent to disturbed. "I guess no one's told you yet," he replied, dreading what he was about to say.
"Told me what?" she demanded.
Clemente was breathing heavily into the phone, paused, then began to speak.
"Max ... Logan's in the hospital. He has stage one Trigeria."
A/N: As I prepare for the last chapters of this story, I just wanted to say thank you again to the reviewers— all of them. They have served as my source of motivation and inspiration. =)