Maddy only has to survive two more days of school before leaving and never looking back to the building where she did what she loved – learned – but was also forced to contended with some of the most vexing people she'd ever met. Two bittersweet days.
Elisabeth pressures her daughter to simply stay home and take it easy until Wednesday, but Maddy won't hear of it. She wants to say goodbye to some of her favorite teachers and look John and his crew in the eye for the last time, knowing that she's going to paradise and they're still stuck in hell. However, it still bothers Maddy that great people like Kara and Mark are stuck in the same hell, the sinking ship known as planet Earth, that the scumbag John resides in.
Monday morning Maddy sets out to school with her head held high. She's never felt more tired and fearful in her life but, contrarily, she's also never carried herself more confidently. She has a plan. For once, she feels in control of something. Meanwhile, Tim Curran trails her silently, reminding her of a mugger or murderer or rapist that would be following her down some alley near here if she weren't mindful. Maddy shudders, trying to shake the creepy feeling.
Nearing the building, Maddy takes a breath through her rebreather and tells Curran to go ahead. "I'll meet you inside," she says, "I forgot to tell my brother something this morning." Curran doesn't hesitate before walking inside and leaving Maddy alone on the sidewalk near the pay phone. In this situation, it works in her favor that her brother has a communicator and she doesn't, though she'd always been jealous in the past. Now, however, it gives Maddy a reason to casually walk up to the payphone near the school's front entrance and nervously punch in the number she's been repeating in her head all morning.
Taking a shaky breath, Maddy rambles into the phone, "Hello, this is an anonymous tip that you shouldn't ignore the email you received from high school student John Ward last night. This is serious; it may sound crazy but … please, it wouldn't hurt to investigate!" Maddy hung up as quickly as she started talking and darted across the street to another payphone, leaving a similar message to another source. And that is how she spends her morning until the school bell rang loudly, pulling her back to the building.
John, of course, didn't knowingly send any emails last night. However, student accounts aren't location sensitive; the location where they are used to log in isn't saved as any record. So, since Maddy still knows his account information, she decided to use it to her advantage to solve a few of her problems at once, assuming everything goes as planned.
The day itself starts normally enough, a normal that luckily doesn't include her running into John or his friends. Maddy doesn't even see Curran around.
Then comes lunch, the most exciting lunch hour the school had ever witnessed. Maddy has never been so happy to see police and press. It is all she can do to contain her excitement and not literally start jumping up and down in the middle of the steadily filling hallway. John is receiving credit for her discovery, and even though he obviously doesn't understand what is going on, Maddy is very amused that he goes along with the attention. For added laughs, she even questions him herself, intentionally causing her classmate to stumble over responses, and that isn't even the best part of the plan.
Part one was successful – she doesn't have to worry about Andrew Fickett anymore. Now, Maddy peers anxiously toward the front doors, hoping part two will also come to fruition. She is so caught up in looking around at everything in excitement and taunting John on camera, an added bonus to the day, that she doesn't notice she is being pushed away from the crowd until she finds herself in a secluded hallway several feet from everyone else.
Maddy looks up in confusion to see Darius and Drew, brothers, a junior and senior who both hang out with John. She takes a shaky breath. "Excuse me," Maddy tries to push past them, but Drew, the younger one, shoves her back.
"What the fuck do you know about this?" he sneers.
"Isn't that something I should be asking you?" she quips softly. "John sure as hell isn't my friend; he's yours. Were you not aware of his love of Ken Horton?"
Darius kicks her shin and she stumbles slightly. "Bitch."
"We know you're up to something. Spill, and we may let you walk away on your own two feet."
Maddy crosses her arms, "I don't know what you're talking about." She starts backing up slowly, preparing to made a run for it, but Darius grabs her arms, twisting it painfully.
Maddy winces in pain as his grip gets tighter. "Here's a secret," he spits, "I think you have to be able to walk to get to Terra Nova, so if you actually want to leave, you'd better be a good little girl. Wouldn't want something to happen and jeopardize your chances so close to the big date."
Maddy shakes in fear but tries desperately to remain stoic. Darius is leaning close enough to her at that point that it doesn't take much effort to spit at him and hit square in the face. With that, the guy double her size throws a punch square at her eye that sends her falling to the ground. Everything is dizzy and blurry and Maddy's head throbs something fierce. She screams and clutches her face.
"Where's your body guard now, little girl?" Drew mocks.
Maddy swears she can hear police sirens in the distance and summons courage to pull herself to her feet. Part two please commence, she hopes internally. "I don't need a body guard," she tells the boys confidently. "I'm perfectly capable on my own."
They just laugh at her. Darius scoffs, "I don't know what angle you're playing, but we know you're up to something. Consider this a warning, if you are behind whatever the fuck this little stunt is out there and it goes south, the 10th pilgrimage to Terra Nova is going to have one less passenger on it."
Darius' threat is cut short by the increase of volume in the commotion around the hall. The brothers exchange a glance and Maddy uses the diversion to her advantage, running forward as far as she can before the two giant guys block her way. "Over here!" Maddy screams, her yell echoing through the cavernous hall.
Drew shoots Maddy a confused look, and she feels immensely relieved when she hears footsteps coming around the corner. Maddy expects for a Terra Nova Recruitment agent to appear but grows suddenly bewildered to see none other than Markus Reynolds. Maddy knows that her one eye is already swelling shut and blinks several times, thinking she must just be experiencing blurred vision; there's no reason for Mark to be here. "Officer!" the unknown guy yells down the hall, and Maddy's long awaited officials finally arrive before Darius and Drew have time to run away.
It takes the two recruitment agents all of a second to look between the two older boys with their hands on Maddy to Maddy and her injured face for them to raise weapons. "Hands in the air!" Drew follows instructions quickly but Darius tries to make a run for it, only resulting in him getting stunned by one of the officer's sonic blasters. "You two are under arrest for assault in the first degree and evading arrest."
The female officer gently grabs Maddy's arm and pulls her to the side. "Are you alright?" Maddy nods breathlessly. "We need your statement." She does a retinal scan with Maddy's ID card and has her briskly type on a Plex. The agents then drag Darius and Drew away as the two brothers glower at Maddy. She masks a smile at how unbelievable well this plan actually went, aside from the whole head injury.
Maddy collects herself with a sigh and leans over her knees, catching her breath.
"Maddy?"
"Mark?" Maddy turns, confirming it really is Mark. What is he doing here?
"Are-are you alright?" Mark asks concerned, gently reaching out and touching her cheek just under her eye. It's already turning purple.
An indignant scream from the lobby interrupts their conversation, "I am the principal here! I demand to know what is going on!"
Maddy and Mark creep around the corner to see agents in dark suits cuffing half a dozen kids, including John. "What is going on," one of the female agents speak up, "is that your students hacked into our private servers; that's how they uncovered the Horton mystery. I'm sorry, but solving one murder doesn't negate the damage they could have done if confidential information was leaked. Terra Nova is the last hope we have and Recruitment doesn't take kindly to people who jeopardize our ability to carry out our jobs."
The police chief asks what information Hope Plaza could possibly have regarding Ken Horton.
"He was supposed to be a pilgrim on the 10th. We were doing your job, sir," the agent spits scathingly, "investigating."
"This has to be some mistake!" Principal Ward argues. "They're just students you can't take them. If they're under arrest you have to state why and read their rights!"
The agent smiles, "We're not a division of the federal government; we're above them. So, no we don't have to state publicly why they are being taken into custody or where they're being detained. Organizing pilgrimages to humanity's last hope does grant some rights on the internationally recognized level. Also, your son and his friends are all 18 already."
Louise spazzes out as her hands are pulled behind her back. "What did I do?" she squeals.
The agent saunters over to Louise with her hands on her hips. "You just admitted on national news that you're the girlfriend and your entire little group here simply loves investigating with Mr. Ward. Do you realize how many international laws you broke when you hacked into our server?"
"I didn't!"
The agent rolls her as if she's above dealing with teenaged girls. "Get them out of here," she orders the others, "away from the cameras."
The breaking news story has turned to how students at the school are being detained by Terra Nova Recruitment and others are being arrested due to fights that broke out in the chaos. Mark shakes his head, "This is insane!"
Amidst the police and recruitment agents who are ushering John and his crew out of the building, Maddy's good eye locks in on one officer who is standing near the principal scanning the crowd. It's the one who arrested Mark last week. Without hesitating, Maddy grabs Mark's arm and pulls him back down the empty hall. "We have to get out of here," she says authoritatively. "If you're seen here, you're toast." It isn't until they're nearing the back door to the building that Maddy thinks to stop and ask, "Wait, what are you even doing here?"
Mark pauses at the door, "Uh," he shifts uncertainly, "I saw what was happening on the news. I had to make sure you were okay. I mean, I wasn't wrong; Curran isn't anywhere to be found."
"That-that's not your job," Maddy reminds, staring at him intently.
"I wish I'd gotten here sooner," is all Mark replies, eyeing Maddy's face. "That looks painful."
Maddy merely smiles. "I've never been better," she states. "It's over. We will be okay." Mark appears confused. "John didn't hack into recruitment," she explains quietly, as if it were obvious. "I did, using his student ID. I found out about the Horton Secret reading emails and such on their private server. Also, can I just say, Recruitment is involved in a load of complicated, sketchy, conspiracy shit which is an entire other story." Mark raises his eyebrows in surprise; he'd never heard Maddy cuss before. "Anyway," she continues, "I used John's account to send an email about the Horton thing to the police, then anonymously alerted the press about the story and recruitment about the breach in their firewalls. It was easy. And as soon as Recruitment gets their heads on straight, they'll update their files and you'll be cleared of all charges. With John in custody, they have no reason to believe his story anymore; you'll get your jobs back."
Mark stares at the girl in front of him in awe. "You weren't kidding when you told me you were going to fix things," he manages. "You sure do keep your promises."
Maddy and Mark stare at each other wordlessly until a fire alarm starts sounding, causing them to jump. Maddy shakes her head with a sight eye roll, "You'd be surprised how often that gets pulled, which means school is basically dismissed for the day." Mark opens the door to leave when he notices the light rainfall that is falling.
"Crap," he frowns, glancing over at Maddy who doesn't have a jacket with her.
"I'll be fine," she assures him. "I'll run."
"And you'll be burned by the time you get home," Mark points out. The only rain Chicago sees in 2149 is highly acidic. "Come on," he takes her hand gently. "My place is closer." Maddy nods mutely, her heart beating loudly as she follows Mark. She looks down at their intertwined hands and her stomach feels full of butterflies. Calm down, Maddy tells herself. He's just being nice. But she also can't forget that he showed up at the school because she could have been in danger, not that he was wrong.
The only other time that Maddy has been to the apartment she was in a blind fury to get information and followed the main street so that she wouldn't get lost. Now, Marks takes her along back roads and through the alleys. Maddy frowns as she glances at the dirty walls and dark spaces. It's crazy that you can walk a few streets over and already be in such a worse part of the city. Though she doesn't want to seem afraid in any way, Maddy subconsciously grabs tighter onto Mark's hand. He pulls his arm protectively around her and Maddy can't help but glance at his perfect, large arm muscles that are now directly in her line of vision. The two pass a family huddled under a thinning blanket and the sorrowful eyes of the littlest boy distracts Maddy from observing Mark's arms, making her heart wretch.
Luckily, Mark's apartment is close and they arrive within five minutes. "You okay?" he asks as soon as they duck into the flat. Maddy nods and frowns at the thinning fabric the rain caused on her clothing. She glances around the small space. "It isn't much," Mark shrugs self-consciously, "but it suffices."
"It's fine," she smiles softly. Thunder rumbles outside and Maddy rubs her burning arm where the stinging water hit her through her disintegrated clothing. "It'll probably get worse before it gets better," Maddy predicts.
Mark nods slowly. "Uh, here," he walks over to the wall near the loft and pulls out a drawer. He hands Maddy a plain gray t-shirt, "You can change if you need to."
"Thanks," Maddy mutters breathlessly. She robotically takes the shirt and goes into the cramped bathroom to change. She pulls her long-sleeved tunic over her head and puts the oversized shirt on, tucking it into her olive-green cargo pants. Maddy looks at herself in the mirror and sighs, running a hand through her hair. Her eye is dark and purple and swollen: disgusting. Her hair is damp and stringy from the rain. She's shakes her head in annoyance; she simply isn't pretty.
Maddy walks out of bathroom to see Mark's toned back as he pulls a shirt on. "S-sorry," she stutters, flustered.
Mark turns with an eyebrow raised, "Y-you're good." Maddy takes a few steps to the kitchen counter and sits down, looking at the table as something to do. "Can I get you anything?" Mark offers. "Something to drink?"
"No thanks."
It is quiet for a moment.
"So …" Mark starts gradually. "Wednesday."
"Yeah …" Maddy murmurs. "Wednesday."
"It's exciting. And mildly terrifying."
"Mostly exciting," Maddy corrects before thinking for a moment. "Other than dinosaurs. Then, very much so terrifying." Mark laughs slightly before they fall silent again. It blows Maddy's mind that they can converse so easily for hours and now they are inexplicably awkward.
"At least you'll never have to deal with John and them again," Mark offers. "They so deserve what they're getting. I couldn't blame anyone for hating their guts."
"I don't even hate them for hating me," Maddy responds. "I hate them for making me hate myself. I hate myself for allowing them to have that much power over me. I can't wait to get to just start over in Terra Nova. That's what I'm looking forward to."
Maddy studies Mark as he listens to her. He smiles at her softly, but Maddy tilts her head to the side as she notes the dark circles under his eyes and the stubble he was growing from not shaving in the past few days. She can feel a tenseness in the way he carries himself, and she can tell it goes beyond his frustration over what happened at school. It's more robotic, it's been engrained. Maddy sees this in Mark so easily because she's recognized it in herself before. "What's wrong?" she asks softly, forgetting whatever else he'd been saying.
Mark appears taken aback.
"What's wrong?" Maddy repeats. Mark tries to deny anything's the matter and Maddy glares at him. "Ever since Terra Nova," she started on him, "life has been crazy. It's insane that it's only been a few weeks because it feels like a lifetime. That's a lifetime I've spent with you, Mark! Okay, I feel like I know you and I can tell something is the matter. I talk to you, why won't you talk to me?"
"I don't talk, Maddy," Mark tries to explain, running a hand through his hair. "Not to anyone. I'm the one that's supposed to keep my family together, and instead I've been tearing it apart."
"I know," Maddy breathes. Mark looks at her in surprise. "I understand because I know exactly what that feels like. But if you allow yourself some varying perspective, I'm starting to realize it probably isn't true, or at least as bad as it seems at the time."
Mark smiles softly. "I really like talking to you, Maddy Shannon."
"Me too," she replies promptly.
Leave it to Maddy to start to actually make a real friend only to be granted one-way passage to humanity's second chance and have to leave forever.