No Escape
Rated PG-13/R: Mature themes, violence, language
Disclaimer: Dark Angel belongs to Fox and Cameron
Chapter 10: Pollo Loco
Her lack of response was what finally broke Zack out of his
stupor. The question whether it was her or not put him in familiar
territory. Now he had a problem to solve; a problem that called for
him to draw upon all his faculties in observing an unforeseen
circumstance. He studied her. She was lying on a cot, her head
propped up by a few pillows. She was wearing gray sweat pants and
socks and a large gray sweatshirt. Her hair was much longer than he
remembered. Of course it had been months since he'd last seen her.
Her eyes were open but they were blank. They weren't the brown orbs
that took in every detail and expressed so much no matter how hard she
tried to hide it. But it was definitely her.
"Maxie."
This time she turned her head to face him. Her eyes still
shone nothing. No joy at seeing him. Not even recognition of his
presence. Zack was stunned. It was then that he noticed the clamp
around her ankle. He followed it and found that she was shackled to
the wall. There was an identical clamp around her wrist. She was
here against her will. Ben had abducted her and kept her prisoner all
these months. All these months they all thought she had abandoned them
and she was here, locked away underground by Ben! Zack felt an
unfamiliar lump form in his throat. He cupped her cheek. He hadn't
even realized he moved to her and was now kneeling on the floor in
front of her cot.
"Max, please say something."
Her brow furrowed like she was trying to figure something out.
She was. The man in front of her was not Ben. But Ben was all she
had known for the past...she had no idea how long. This man was
familiar she knew that. He was someone from her life before this.
Before Ben. The life she had before was all hazy and jumbled in her
head. Pushed down and replaced with this dark room, with Ben praying,
talking, and sometimes yelling over her about their destiny and the
blue lady. All she knew was loneliness and confusion and Ben. Why
was this man here now? A tiny voice way back in the sane part of her
mind was telling her she loved this man and that she should be happy
because she always knew he would eventually come and save her. But
the demented part of her mind was much louder and had the nerve to use
reason to get her to ignore the lucid part of her mind. This can't be
the man you think because that man was from Manticore. She and Ben
were a long, long way from Manticore. The Blue Lady had chosen them
to survive and run away before Manticore was attacked and burned to
the ground. Therefore this cannot be that man you loved from Manticore
because that man is dead with all the rest of them.
"It's me. It's Zack. Maxie, please say something."
Zack! The sane part of her mind suddenly became a whole lot
louder. It nearly overpowered the barmy part and pulled her away from
the allusions she had come to believe were true. This insanity that
wrapped itself around her would have lifted. She would have been
herself again. She would have remembered everything clearly if it
wasn't for what happened next.
"I see you discovered what I've been up to."
Zack felt a chill creep up his spine at the sound of Ben's calm
voice behind him. The chill quickly disappeared and was replaced with
a fury Zack didn't know he was capable of. He spun around to face
Ben. He never got a chance to voice his opinion on the subject of Ben
holding Max prisoner, however. Ben swung and the ax he was holding
connected with Zack's throat squirting at least a few drops of blood
over every surface in the tiny compartment.
Ben and Max watched as Zack clutched his throat and staggered
around the room.
Ben had known he was being followed earlier in the woods.
He'd known his tracker was another X like himself and not one of the
TAC leaders which is why he kept going to his destination. One of his
own would ask questions first whereas a TAC leader would call in a
team and have him surrounded. He didn't see anyone when he emerged
from the underground room, but he could smell the person and he knew
it was Zack. Instead of making his presence known, Zack had waited
until he was gone to investigate for himself. That signed his own
death warrant as far as Ben was concerned. Ben made his way back near
the compound and stealthily looked around until he found what he
needed. The ax.
"You're dismissed soldier." Ben said and then saluted Zack as
he finally fell to the ground, his eyes open and lifeless.
Ben looked up quickly. The sounds coming from Max's mouth
were unlike anything he'd heard since bringing her down here.
"What's wrong Maxie?"
Max pointed at him but still couldn't speak. Now tears were
streaming down her face.
"What!" Ben yelled.
"Your...hair...your...hair...you look...like a rooster." Max
choked out between fits of laughter.
Ben dropped his ax and went into the make shift bathroom.
Looking in the mirror above the sink, he saw what Max had been talking
about. His hands were blood soaked from chopping Zack into bits and
pulling out his teeth so when he ran his fingers through his hair, the
blood made it stick up on his head. Ben began laughing too.
"You're a rooster. Cock a doodle doo." Max was saying when
he came back out and walked over to her.
"If I'm a rooster that makes you my hen." Ben said while
pushing her onto her back.
"I'm the hen. You're the rooster and this is our coop." Max
said before laughing again. Ben silenced her with his lips on hers.
Before entering her, he looked over at the bag that had Zack's
remains and wondered if teeth would be enough of an offering to the
blue lady for getting rid of his biggest enemy.
Chapter 11: Change in Command
The walkie talkie exploded from the force of being thrown into
the wall and then its pieces sprinkled to the floor.
Lydecker stood in the middle of his office. His chest
heaving. Smoke practically coming out of his ears, nose, and off the
top of his head.
Another one. Another one! How did he go from having the most
promising military unit the world has ever seen under his command to
having his top two soldiers runaway in less than a year's time.
After 452's escape, all the evaluations of the remaining members
confirmed they had deemed her a traitor and were loyal to Manticore.
They still went ahead and prepared them for missions. The success of
the missions were greater than even they had predicted. The search
for 452 had continued to come up empty but Lydecker was still
confident that she would be found in due time. She was well trained,
but he had several more trained soldiers like her perfectly willing to
track her down for him. But there was no way he could deploy any of
them to go hunt the rogue now. What if they joined her and 599? Was
that the plan all along? Did 452 and 599 have this planned out from
the beginning? Were others included in their plan to runaway
together? All these questions would be answered and this time
Lydecker would not be fooled.
Ben inspected the rows of his unit members. He almost felt
sorry for them until he remembered how isolated he always felt around
them. Some still had bruises. Some didn't. But all their eyes spoke
volumes of the backlash they received as a result of Zack's dissent.
Ben worked hard to try not to laugh. It wasn't that he was happy they
were punished while he avoided it since he was away on a mission
during the time of Zack's "escape." Nor was he happy because as a
result of Zack's absence he was promoted to C.O. He was happy because
despite all the faith the powers that be put in Zack and all the times
he was praised and worshipped by his superiors and the unit, they now
all thoroughly believed that Zack had betrayed him. Oh ye of little
faith. Ben cleared his throat to deter the chuckle that almost
escaped.
Chapter 12: Gossamer
It had taken another few months before things had settled down
again at good ole Manticore. It was finally decided that the constant
psychological evaluations were doing more harm than good. They decided
to hold off on the preventive measures and come up with something more
efficient in the event that yet another X5 went rogue.
The project had already been in the works but it was never
given as much funding and consideration as the other projects so it
wasn't long before Gossamer was ready for testing. They created two
types: one for retrieval and one for elimination. The retrieval
prototype was let out first. They shoved an unsuspecting basement
dweller out of a van in the middle of the night five miles from the
compound. They let gossamer sniff his shirt and released him from his
cage. Twenty minutes later, the basement dweller was dragged back to
the compound cocooned in a nest of Gossamer's saliva. Success!
The gossamers continued to be successful no matter how far
away the test subject was dropped. When an X4 was tracked and
recovered after a three day head start, Lydecker decided to use
Gossamer to hunt his two missing X5s.
"We should just shoot it right now."
"Aw come on, Maury, it's still useful in finding them freaks
in the basement if they get out."
"Lydecker doesn't give a fuck about the freaks in the
basement. He needed something that could track the rogue soldiers.
Damn it, just look at the fucking thing."
Maury and Dinkins watched as the gossamer continued to circle
and sniff around the same spot in the woods. It had been plugging
around this spot for the past three hours. In the past, the gossamer
would stay in one spot for fifteen minutes tops trying to pick up a
trail again before it was back on the hunt. Maury sighed, it looked
like this would be the gossamer's first failure. Why did he have to
take point with this one? Now he would have to be the one to tell
Lydecker they were back to square one because the fucking nasty ass
spitting beast thing didn't work on what they really wanted it for.
He knew he should have called in sick today. He knew this was gonna
be a shitty day. First his car-
"Maury!" Maury's mind abruptly stopped its wander and he
finally heard Dinkins calling him.
"What?"
"Look." Maury looked to where Dinkins was pointing. He
trudged over to it.
"Big deal," he said as he went to kick it "it's just a fucking
h-" His foot connected with something solid. Something that remained
in place despite being kicked. He was on his knees and instant later,
pulling at it.
TBC