Chapter Two

Prophecy


The drive back to the warehouse was filled with silence, silence and the booming sound of Max's heart beating a hundred miles an hour. She sat in the car trying to figure out if it was from Logan holding her hand as he drove, anticipation for the mission or the fear that this would be their last drive, this would be the last time she would see these streets. The sound of the crow started to echo in her mind, drumming out the sound of her heart.

Time seemed to fall into slow motion, she turned her head from watching the street and the stores passing her by and turned to look at Logan, his head resembling that of a hedgehog, yet he was still the cutest hedgehog she had ever seen. His eyes focused on the road, his glasses suddenly lighting up from a streetlamp hitting them. He turned and she felt his fingers slightly tighten over hers and he smiled at her before turning back to the road.

She realized something in that moment with a clarity and intensity she would have never imagined; it was second only to the time she found Vertes file suggesting Logan would commit suicide.

She didn't want to give this up, not yet.

She'd been out of Manticore for eleven years, but it seemed like it only this year that she started living. She knew she owed that to Logan; it wasn't just that she had fallen in love; it was that she was finally able to trust people. She was finally allowing herself to be happy and free.

That's what she was thinking as they were loading the final things into the van back at the warehouse. 'I'm not ready to give this up', she thought as hers and Logan's eyes connected and he smiled at her before he turned back to the screen. "I can't do this," she whispered.

"What Maxie?" Zack asked walking up to her, causing Logan's head to turn around, apparently he hadn't heard her.

"I can't do this," she said it stronger this time.

"Look Max I know you're scared, we all are."

That frightened Max even more than the crow, Zack was scared? "I'm not ready to die." She looked away from Zack to Logan, who was looking at her as if he was fighting back tears.

He swallowed deeply, he was scared too, scared of losing her and losing the best part of himself all in a night.

"Max what kind of a soldier are you? You want to let them win because of a guy?" His eyes darkened as he glared at Logan, but Logan's eyes never backed down despite the intimidation. "You just said you were sick of running!"

"I am sick of running. I just have this feeling in my gut that if we go there tonight…" She got too choked up to finish, she couldn't say the words.

"If we go there what Max?" Krit asked

"If we go there, we aren't all coming back." She shook her head as she too fought back the tears, she didn't want them to see her so weak.

"Max, you're being ridiculous, you're scared because of a crow, how many times have you seen a crow before and nothing's happened. Just because it happened once…" He shook his head and groaned, he hadn't even wanted to do this in the first place, but they had talked him into it with all of their words of finally being free.

"Max, he's got a point." Syl added

"I know he does…It's just this feeling in my gut. I've barely lived my life. I know we'll still be on the run, hell they'll probably even be closer to catching us or at least me because of this thing in my neck. I'm just not ready for it today."

Zack turned to Lydecker, "Aren't you going to say anything about this? This was your plan!"

"I raised you kids to have good instincts, to know when to stay and fight and when to run. How often has that failed you, Zack? How often has that failed any of you?"

The silence grew even louder as they all thought about the times they went against their instincts and barely came out alive.

"Even if we went ahead with this mission, just the fact that Max is thinking that something is going to go wrong is going to increase the odds of something actually happening."

Zack tried to butt in, "But-"

"But nothing Zack, I want this, I want this as much as you guys. Renfro is going to destroy this entire project, we may never get another chance to stop her from doing anymore damage, but you're more than soldiers now, this doesn't have to be your fight, at least today it doesn't."

It took a lot of effort on Max's part to not allow her jaw to drop when Lydecker not only gave his approval for her being weak and scared, but acknowledged them as something besides soldiers.

"Okay great," Zack said once more facing Max accusingly, "we're going to just let them get away with killing Tinga."

Max's voice softened, "Zack she wouldn't want us to die just because she did. She had a life Zack, she had the life we've been afraid of living. For six years she got to be a normal girl, I want my chance too Zack. This fight is far from over, but it's not happening tonight." Her eyes left her brother's and went to Logan's, he smiled at her and she knew without a doubt she had made the right decision.