Summary: If they hadn't escaped in '09 would Ben still have been crazy. I think so. The blue lady still has plans for him and for Max…whether she's willing or not.
Warning: Mature themes and character death.
No Escape
Chapter 2: The Chamber
Civilians typically use handshakes when greeting one another for the first time. Civilians of relation to one another or whom have a relationship classified as friendly may hug or kiss on the cheek as a form of greeting. This is most common with females. Civilian males may still greet a friend with a handshake or by slapping hands.
Twenty students stared unwaveringly at the screen in front of them listening to the monotonous voiceover and watching the images of "normal" civilian behavior. The X5s present ranged from ages fifteen to seventeen. They were in the process of training for outside missions which required they be schooled on how to behave in the outside world. Their hair was no longer shaved making it easy to distinguish between the sexes of the X5. If not for their unnatural stillness and hard, emotionless eyes, they could pass for the people they were watching on the screen.
Classes ended and the "students" immediately lined up in two straight rows and marched in perfect sync to the cafeteria for lunch.
**
"Hey Ben, there's your friend." Zane gestured to the janitor mopping the area by the X6s' tables. "Maybe you should go give him a handshake." Zane, Krit and Pat burst into laughter.
Ben clutched his fork harder making his knuckles turn white while his eyes remained cast down on his plate. It was drilled into the X series psyche that they were different from the TAC leaders, doctors, and other personnel that worked on the base. To the X5s that difference meant that they stuck together. They didn't socialize with the norms. But Ben always had far too many questions. He learned early on that the members of his unit were not the ones that could satisfy his curiosity. He, therefore, took to questioning the personnel. More often than not he got in trouble for it. But every once in a while, he'd find someone that was willing to answer his questions. The janitor Zane teased him about was one such person. Ben had approached him two days after he had given the card with the blue lady on it to Jack.
Their altar on the high place was discovered not too long after Jack died. The repercussions and disciplinary actions were tremendous. Religion raised too many issues. Issues the powers that be did not want their genetically engineered killing machines spinning around in their heads. After the fall out from the "blue lady" incident, they all stopped making pilgrimages to the high place to donate teeth and dropped the belief of the blue lady all together. All except Ben that is. He continued to believe in her and that among a few of his other idiosyncrasies made him a bit of an outcast among his unit. The teasing was usually subtle because in many respects Ben was an excellent soldier. In hand to hand combat, he was only continually bested by Zack. But the jabs still hurt. There was only one person in his unit that didn't fault him for his beliefs.
"Knock it off." Max said to Zane, Krit, and Pat.
They immediately ended their laughter upon hearing the serious tone from their second in command.
**
After lunch, they usually had thirty minutes to an hour of free time. Ben's unit usually ate lunch languidly while catching up with each other. Ben, on the other hand, would eat his lunch as quickly as possible. He liked to have some alone time. Or more often than not, he liked to write in the journal one of his "norm" friends had snuck to him a year ago. Ben loved being able to write down his thoughts especially since he didn't feel like he could express them to any of his fellow soldiers. Everybody assumed Ben just liked being alone. Ironically the time he took to write in his journal was the only time he didn't feel so lonely. The biggest reason probably being that he addressed his ramblings to the blue lady.
He was alone in the barracks reading over something he wrote when he heard soft footsteps approaching. He quickly jumped up from his bed. Just as he was throwing up the top to his chest he looked up and saw that it was Max. He immediately relaxed. Max was the only other person Ben told about his diary.
"You want to be alone." Max asked.
Ben smiled.
"I wouldn't mind your company." Max gave him a huge grin that melted his heart before coming over to him and plopping down on his bed.
"So what's up?"
Max knew he was asking why she was here instead of back in the cafeteria with the others.
"Just waiting for Zack. We're supposed to go over a POW rescue scenario Lydecker gave him this morning."
Ben just nodded, his mood darkening at the mention of her meeting with Zack.
Max noticed the change but oblivious to the reason tried to cheer him up.
"So I hear you get next shot at the flight simulator." It worked. Ben grinned and nodded.
It was a huge honor to be trained to fly. Prior to this point their unit had been trained in every area equally. But the rules changed when it came to aeronautics. Manticore could tell early on that not every one in the unit would be suitable for the task; therefore, they set up preliminary tests and requirements. Zack was the only one who met the requirements thus far. As the youngest in her unit, Max still had another year before she could take the initial test. But of those who had tested, Ben scored the second highest.
"I'm kinda nervous. Gibbs is in charge. And…well you know…how hard he is on me sometimes."
Max nodded in agreement. For some reason it was usually Gibbs who received the reports on Ben's many indiscretions. Gibbs was extra hard on Ben for it. He viewed him as a constant screw up.
"I know you'll do great, Ben. Just shut out Gibbs voice and that dumb twitch his eye does when he's really mad." Max giggled and Ben laughed with her once again finding himself drawn in by her beauty and her friendliness toward him. Ben knew he would have no problem shutting out Gibbs if he instead concentrated on these moments he had alone with Max.
"Am I interrupting?" Zack's voice boomed from the doorway.
Ben's jaw clenched at the light that sparkled in Max's eyes when she turned and saw Zack.
"Well, well, well, took you long enough." She quipped.
"Hey, it was tater tot day." Zack grinned.
"Looks like your shirt enjoyed them too." Max pointed to the ketchup stain on Zack's gray shirt.
"Ha, Ha." Zack pulled off his shirt and tossed it in the laundry basket.
Ben felt another surge of jealousy at the way Max drank in Zack's muscular torso.
"You ready to get started." Zack said after pulling on another shirt. Max nodded before jumping off Ben's bed and hurrying to sit with Zack on his.
Ben, suddenly feeling invisible, headed for the door. He looked back to see Max wiping off a spot of ketchup from the corner of Zack's mouth. Ben pushed open the door and ran from the compound into the woods trying to block out the image of Max and Zack seated on the bed staring longingly at one another.
**
Ben liked the woods. If he went deep enough into them even his advanced hearing couldn't make out the noises of Manticore.
He slowed when he reached the place in the woods that always brought back a particular memory. It was here they had made their first kill. Ben never had a problem with asking questions even after being ignored or punished for them, but the one question he really wanted an answer to he couldn't bring himself to ask. He'd wanted to ask the others in his unit if they too thought hunting that nomalie down in the woods and killing him was the most exhilarating day of their lives. Ben licked his lips and could have sworn he tasted blood when he came upon the rock where they had left the nomalie as if on display. Ben liked to sit on the rock. Sometimes he would run that day through his head over and over again. Sometimes he would write in his journal and sometimes he would talk to the blue lady. But today Ben didn't have time for any of that. Lunch was almost over and he had to get back.
As he turned to head back a ray of light casting through the trees reflected on something buried in the ground. Ben approached it cautiously. For all he knew it could have been a land mine. A few more feet and Ben saw that it was a handle. Not discarded debris of some bigger mechanism that was perhaps dragged through the woods, but a handle that was actually attached to something beneath the surface. Ben felt excitement bubbling at the prospect of discovering something that might be totally secret and therefore totally his.
Ben pulled the handle. It protested at first and didn't appear like it was going to reveal anything but then he began to make out the sound of something creaking below him. He tugged harder and the ground before him suddenly began to dip. Leaves, twigs, and dirt began falling into the opening as Ben continued pulling. Ben peered down into what looked like a small chamber. He listened for sounds but could make out none. Confident, he jumped into the chamber that he estimated was about twelve feet deep.
The room was perfectly visible to him thanks to his night vision as Ben did a 360 surveying every aspect of the chamber. It wasn't very large. Two people could sleep comfortably any more than that it would be cramped and suffocating. Shelves lined one wall. There was a tiny table flanked by too crates on the other wall. Underneath that table there was a metal box. Ben made a move towards it but then noticed the thick Red Cross on it. It was a first aide kit. There was a cot against the third wall with two ratty rolled up sleeping bags on it. At the foot of the cot there was another metal box. No label outside suggested what it was so Ben kicked it gently. After only hearing clinking noises, he opened it and found various tools inside. Ben slowly stood and continued his perusal of the chamber. The fourth wall wasn't a wall at all but a curtain. Ben crossed the room to it in two strides. He hesitated briefly before pulling it back. What he saw put a flurry of excitement in his stomach. Behind the curtain the ground dipped slightly into a tiled area. There was a sink in one corner and a toilet in the other. Ben reached for the faucet not noticing how his hands were shaking. He turned it and after a little sputtering, a steady stream of water poured out. Ben yelped in excitement. He figured this place was some kind of bomb shelter. The cobwebs and rust told him that the place had not been inhabited in years. Nobody at Manticore probably even knew it existed. It was his!
**