Woohoo! I just got a review from a new person! Do you know how shocked I was to see three reviews in my mail box for one chapter?! I don't think that has ever happened to me before! WOW! Ok, I'll calm down sooner or later.

Chapter 11

Abigail looked up as she heard the three N-Tek agents enter the clearing. "Figures," she sighed. The stunned looks on the faces of the three newcomers amused her. "Hey guys, imagine seeing you here!" She knew she didn't have to act threatening to make them jumpy, her presence alone, she observed, had already accomplished that. The redhead stared at Max, Kat, and Berto for a few seconds, and then watched as they snapped out of the stupefied daze they were each in.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Kat was the first to break the silence.

"I could ask you the same thing, but I know. I guess the radio changed channels during the crash, and my mayday got to you instead of my grandfather."

"Grandfather?" Kat looked around. "You have family in Brazil?"

"Not family, actually, just my grandfather. Now, I suppose you, Kat, are especially eager to get out of here, aren't you?"

Kat crossed her arms across her chest and glared at Abigail. "How do you know about that?"

"I had some spare time while at N-Tek, so I took a glance at the histories of the people I'd be working with. The information is classified, of course, but as Berto knows, I'm very good at computers. Right Berto?"

Berto had been staring down at his feet during this exchange. Hearing this refernce to their working together, he mumbled something incoherent and turned away, walking off into the brush.

"Now, let's get on with this, shall we?" Abigail stood up, stretched, and walked over to Max, who, Kat was surprised, had shown no reaction during the entire exchange. Abigail stopped two feet in front of Max. "Show me where you guys parked, Max."

Kat snickered. "Yeah, I'm sure he's just gonna-"she stopped short as Max turned around and started walking back towards the way they had come.

"They have pretty good snake here, Kat. I left the poison sacs for you if you want them," Abigail said, smiling sweetly.

Kat felt sick. Max had been acting weird all day, and now she knew something was definitely wrong. And she had a bad feeling who had a hand in it. "What'd you do to him," she glared at Abigail.

"Who says I did anything to him?" Abigail asked as she disappeared after Max, following him into the rainforest.

Kat found Berto, who had been sitting on a stump six feet away. "Martinez, Abigail has something to do with what's wrong with Max."

Berto stood up quickly, caught his foot on a root, and would have fallen flat on his face if Kat hadn't caught him. "What do you mean? Where are they?"

"They went off this way, come on, Max is leading her to where we left Behemoth."(Spelling? I don't know.)

"WHAT?!" Max wouldn't do that, he has to be setting her up for something."

"I don't think so, he was acting...weird."

"What kind of weird?" Berto took off at a run towards where Kat had said Max and Abigail were headed, and Kat ran next to him."

"Not all there weird, the light's are on but nobody's home weird, get it?"

"I was thinking maybe he was just messed up after being betrayed...again. You know how he was after the Mairot thing," Berto panted, "but now it sounds like they...did something to him when he was at the DREDD base."

"Well whatever happens, we can't let them-"Kat stopped dead in her tracks, and Berto, who had been a few paces behind her on the narrow path they had made, plowed right into her.

"Hey!" he yelled, but Kat clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Listen," she whispered.

Berto stopped struggling against her, and listened. It was hard to hear anything but the sounds of the forest around him, but he easily picked up on an enraged voice coming from twenty feet away.

"YOU LANDED IN QUICKSAND! HOW DID YOU LAND IN QUICKSAND AND NOT REALIZE IT! LOOK AT THIS, YOU CAN'T EVEN GET TO THE DOORS!"

Berto smiled to himself. This was the best mistake he had made all day. All week, really. Kat looked over at him and saw his facial expression.

"How are you smiling?!" she hissed at him, keeping her voice low to avoid being heard.

"Because, if she got away with Max, we'd be in real trouble, now at least we're all stuck here together. That means if we're not going anywhere, neither is she, and neither is Max," he whispered back.

"Yeah, but you seem to be overlooking the part where we're stuck in the lousy rainforest with HER!" she yelled the last word, unable to control herself.

Berto shook his head. "Come on, we should probably go see what she's up to now, we can't just stay here forever."

"Fine, let's go." They both got up and ran at a slower pace to the landing site, knowing there was no real rush to get there this time. They heard Abigail before they saw her.

"What are you doing?! Wake up! Stupid-"a loud thud sounded, "fickle programming!"

Kat and Berto appeared just in time to see Abigail kick Max again. Max was sitting on the ground, slumped against a tree, seemingly asleep.

"Hey, knock it off!" Kat yelled as Abigail prepared to kick Max again. "I'm the only one around here who gets to kick him, all right?!"

"Yeah, well then get him to wake up!" Abigail yelled back.

"Why don't you tell me why he's asleep in the first place?"

Berto knelt down next to Max.

"How should I know why he's sleeping?!" Abigail answered Kat back. "He's your partner, isn't he?!"

"Yeah, well you did something weird to him! Why was he listening to you?!"

"Maybe he likes me better!"

"Oh, get over yourself!"

"Guys..."

"Why should I?!"

"Because you're a stuck-up little-"

"GUYS!"

"WHAT?!" Both women spun around and glared at Berto.

"Max is waking up," he said quietly.

Kat and Abigail glanced at each other, and Abigail went to stand against a nearby tree. Kat ran to Max. "Hey, Steel, are you alive?"

"No," Max grumbled. "How'd I get here?"

"You walked here," Abigail offered.

Max opened his mouth to respond, and then stopped and closed his eyes. "Bro, tell me that wasn't who I think it was," he moaned.

"Um, I won't tell you?"

A loud sucking noise to the left brought everyone's attention to the quicksand where the top of Behemoth had just sunk under the surface.

"This day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"